The patient then returns to the treatment area, is positioned on the treatment table and receives the treatment. In our institution, almost all tumor treatments are fractionated. Thus, the frame is attached to a rigid plastic mask that precisely contours the facial skeletal features. The patient feels nothing as the beam treats the tumor. Usually there are none of the side effects usually associated with radiotherapy such as nausea, red skin or hair loss.
Most patients carry on their normal daily activities before and after the daily treatment.
We know that conventional radiation could never be done in a single fraction, and we have therefore taken advantage of the benefit of fractionation for the radiosurgical cases. Each treatment lasts 15-20 minutes. The patient is awake and comfortable during the treatments. The linear accelerator provides very precise, uniform irradiation for stereotactic radiosurgery of brain tumors. The linear accelerator produces radiation having a higher energy than that produced by the cobalt-source machine.