Finding Focus New radiation technique makes treatment less invasive and highly targeted Stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) and stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) may sound complicated, but their benefits couldn’t be more straightforward: more effective and less invasive treatment for many cancer patients. These highly sophisticated and innovative technologies are now at Augusta Health and will give oncologists the ability to deliver treatment in a number of clinical scenarios, says Robert Kyler, MD, medical director of Radiation Oncology at the Augusta Health Cancer Center, a Duke Health affiliate. SRS is used for lesions in the brain and spine, while SBRT is used to treat lesions in other sites such as the lungs, liver and bones. They both work by aiming multiple narrow radiation beams at the target from multiple angles as the treatment unit rotates around the patient. Because the targets are quite small, minimizing movement during treatment is critical. Patients are therefore rigidly immobilized while being treated, and the 4 AUGUSTA HEALTH • CANCER PROGRAM ANNUAL REPORT equipment features devices that monitor and adjust for patient movement during treatment to ensure a high degree of safety. Range of advantages That kind of focus brings a range of advantages, says Dr. Kyler. The less-invasive approach may be appropriate for some patients who would not be ideal surgical candidates — for example, older patients with early lung cancer who may have COPD — and it also eliminates the need for surgical recovery time. “Surgery is often the first consideration, but not all patients are able or willing to have it. SRS or SBRT is ideal in those settings due to its noninvasive nature and the high likelihood of control,” says Dr. Kyler. “Studies of patients with early lung cancer treated with SBRT have shown rates of tumor control equivalent to those achieved by surgery,” he adds. continued on page 5
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