Gamma Knife
Precisely targeted radiation beams to treat brain tumors and other brain abnormalities.
What is Gamma Knife?
Gamma Knife is not a knife, but a non-invasive brain surgery tool that uses precisely guided radiation beams to eradicate brain tumors (cancerous and noncancerous).
Gamma Knife is also used to treat arteriovenous malformations (AVMs), clusters of abnormal blood vessels that can bleed. It is also used to treat functional disorders, such as trigeminal neuralgia (one-sided facial pain), and movement disorders, such as essential tremor and Parkinsonian tremor.
How does it work?
Gamma Knife is a machine used to perform stereotactic radiosurgery, a non-invasive radiation treatment that uses hundreds of narrow radiation beams that are precisely aimed from different angles to target and destroy small to medium-sized, well-defined brain tumors or other precise targets.
Gamma Knife technology allows radiation oncologists to pinpoint the tumor, shape the radiation beams and immobilize the patient so that the radiation dose can be delivered with extreme accuracy (to less than 1mm). Computer-aided precision makes it possible to deliver high doses of radiation that kill the tumor in one treatment, while sparing damage to healthy brain tissue surrounding the tumor.
Gamma Knife at Cancer Care Northwest
Cancer Care Northwest’s radiation oncologists partner with Gamma Knife of Spokane to offer our patients focused radiosurgery treatment for brain tumors and other disorders. Gamma Knife of Spokane is home to the only dedicated stereotactic radiosurgery technology in Spokane.