Newswise — NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. - Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH) is the first hospital in New Jersey to offer the Leksell Gamma Knife Icon, the most precise stereotactic radiosurgery system (SRS) currently available to patients diagnosed with primary and secondary brain tumors, vascular disorders, refractory pain, and movement disorders.

Treatments using the new Icon System are available at the hospital's New Brunswick campus and can now be planned and guided by a frameless approach, when appropriate. The frameless mask solution is one of several new features of Icon and is integrated with a high-definition motion management system.

“Increasing the precision of cranial stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) is essential for effectively targeting tumor tissue while protecting healthy brain tissue from damage,” said Shabbar Danish, MD, FAANS, Chief of Neurosurgery for Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey; Director of Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery Director at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and Director of the Gamma Knife Center at RWJUH. “The new Gamma Knife Icon System now provides the most accurate motion tracking during treatment. Additionally with Gamma Knife, there is a two-to-four fold improvement in sparing normal brain tissue compared to other linear accelerator technologies.”
Nearly 78,000 new cases of primary brain tumors (including cancerous and non-cancerous tumors) were diagnosed in 2015, and today nearly 700,000 people in the U.S. alone are living with primary brain and CNS tumors including malignant tumors, benign tumors, functional disorders (such as essential tremor and severe facial pain (trigeminal neuralgia) vascular disorders and ocular disorders.

Primary and metastatic brain tumors are challenging to treat. While surgery is an effective option, great care must be taken to minimize damage to normal surrounding brain tissue, and patients are at risk for surgical complications such as infection, post-surgical bleeding, and complications due to anesthesia. Traditional radiation therapy delivered to the brain may cause damage to healthy tissue within the brain and other parts of the body, leading to side effects such as hair loss, skin problems, neurocognitive decline and fatigue. Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) is a non-invasive treatment that focuses multiple beams of radiation to specific areas within the brain, destroying diseased tissue with precision while minimizing damage to surrounding healthy tissue. The procedure typically involves a single, outpatient session of radiation.

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