M.D. Recently an international meeting was held in Brussels outlining potential benefits of radiation for benign diseases. Over decades in countries outside of the United States patients have had the opportunity of low dose radiation for treatment of inflammatory joint diseases and other benign conditions.
Clinical practice is more limited in the United States.
In general, Americans have been reluctant to use radiation for benign disease. That is changing rapidly. There are benign tumors accepted even in the United States for treatment. These include such tumors as meningiomas and acoustic neuromas. Our group is especially familiar with treatment of these tumors, having the largest experience worldwide for fractionated radiosurgery of acoustic neuromas.