For patients suffering from cancer that has spread to the brain, treatment options are improving locally.
St. Anne’s Hospital Regional Cancer Care in Dartmouth has begun offering a new radiation treatment that uses a non-invasive, single, large dose of radiation to destroy or shrink tumors in the brain.
Called stereotactic radiosurgery, it is used in patients with inoperable tumors.
“It’s very exciting to have this available,” said Dr. Raymond Dugal, St. Anne’s Hospital Regional Cancer Care chief of Radiation Oncology.
Currently, the St. Anne’s site in Dartmouth is the only center offering the procedure in this area, though Southcoast Hospitals Group — parent company of Charlton Memorial Hospital — is adding the technology in its new Southcoast Center for Cancer Care in Fairhaven, due to open in early 2011.
Previously, patients needing this type of radiation would have to travel to Providence or Boston.
The Novalis Tx radiosurgery technology may help patients with brain cancer [...]

Original post by Deborah Allard