Because of a vast array of side effects ranging from high blood pressure, elevation of sugar to thinning of the skin, blood vessels, muscle and bone, steroid use must be prudently and constantly evaluated and re-assessed. For that reason, more sophisticated methods of treatment such as stereotactic radiosurgery have been implemented. Stereotactic radiosurgery using pencil-thin beams of radiation directed from thousands of different angles obliterate tissues deep within the brain. When developed in the early 1950's by the European neurosurgeon, Lars Leksell, the goal was to destroy tissue in the brain. Now with lower doses of radiation, the goal is to effectively treat arteriovenous malformations, metastatic tumors and a variety of primary tumors within the head.
Standard radiation involves daily treatments for a period of weeks.
This compares to stereotactic radiosurgery which is a single dose of radiation is given and to fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy which is a series of sophisticated radiation with the accuracy of radiosurgery. Recently published data by Jay Loeffler et al from Harvard evaluated 37 patients with primary gliomas treated with standard radiation and radiosurgery. Radiosurgery boosted the dose of external beam radiation to the tumor while helping minimize radiation dose and damage to normal tissues. Patients were generally quite functional at the time of treatment. Twenty three had glioblastoma multiforme and fourteen had anaplastic astrocytoma.