Advanced technique delivers radiation with the precision of a surgeon's scalpel
Crystal Lamb of Macomb, left, is doing well after stereotactic radiosurgery to treat brain cancer. She is enjoying spending time with her husband, Warren, and their two dogs.
Crystal Lamb's life took an unexpected turn in October 2009 when she was diagnosed with lung cancer that had spread to her brain. "I was an absolutely healthy 48-year-old female," she said.
She had noticed some trouble with her vision, but after a visit to the eye doctor revealed no eye problems, she continued on with her job as a social worker with Community Mental Health, helping prisoners at the Macomb County Jail.
"My husband and I went on vacation and I had problems with my sight and balance," she said. "It got progressively worse so we came home early. I went to see my primary care physician and he knew right away something was wrong and he sent me for an MRI."
She was directly admitted to Henry Ford Macomb Hospital in Clinton Township. Once the diagnosis was confirmed, planning began to fight her cancer.
First was two and a half weeks of radiation therapy to shrink the two brain lesions that were found and then she became one of the first patients at the Josephine Ford Cancer Center at Henry Ford Macomb Hospitals to undergo stereotactic radiosurgery for a brain tumor in early May. The alternative - surgery to remove the tumor - would have meant a much more difficult, lengthy recovery. While Crystal isn't back to full speed, she is undergoing chemotherapy to treat her lung cancer and preparing to return to work.
Stereotactic radiosurgery is the preferred treatment for appropriate patients Medical Director of Radiation Oncology Ibrahim Aref, MD, has been performing stereotactic radiosurgery using the advanced linear accelerator at the Clinton Township hospital to treat lung cancer for more than a year. This type of radiation therapy is used to treat cancers that have spread, or metastasized, from other parts of the body. "For lung cancer, you don't have to be within 1 millimeter accuracy like you do with brain lesions," Dr. Aref said. "We needed to do the work with the Physics Department in planning the treatments to ensure accuracy."
Dr. Aref said sometimes people are confused by the term "stereotactic radiosurgery." Stereotactic means "in three dimensions." Radiosurgery is really a throwback to the origins of the technology. He said radiosurgery was invented by a neurosurgeon named Leksell in 1951, and the "surgery" part of the name stuck. The "radio" refers to deliver of radiation. Today, radiosurgery is only performed by radiation oncologists, in collaboration with neurosurgeons.
Stereotactic radiosurgery sends narrow beams of radiation externally from many directions. The beams all meet on the lesion site, providing an extremely high dose of radiation to the exact spot, destroying the cancer and leaving other tissue untouched.
The therapy isn't for all patients. "We use it for patients with between one and three lesions that are less than 3.5 centimeters in size and who have no other symptoms related to size of the lesion, such as nausea or vomiting."
The obvious benefit for appropriate patients is avoiding a surgical procedure, he added.
Crystal said the procedure itself was intimidating. The planning for the procedure to treat both the brain lesions took most of the day, but the radiation treatment itself took only about 30 minutes and she knew she was in good hands.
"The staff was wonderful. They talked me through it and they held my hand. The team was great and I can't say enough about Dr. Aref. I really appreciated him."
