Lung cancer is considered a very life-threatening cancer and one of the most difficult to treat, because of its tendency to spread, or metastasize, very early after it forms. The lung also is a very common location for tumor metastasis from other parts of the body. Lung tumors move with each breath, which presents a treatment challenge for clinicians.

Today, stereotactic body radiosurgery techniques formerly limited to the brain can now be applied to treat tumors in the body. Lung cancer treatment can involve surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation therapy, as well as combinations of these treatments.

Brainlab technologies are widely used in the field of image-guided radiosurgery to assist your physician  during the different treatment phases.

Lung Cancer Treatment

Surgical removal of the tumor is generally performed for certain types of lung tumors, and is the treatment of choice for cancer that has not spread beyond the lung. About 10%-35% of lung cancers can be removed surgically, but removal does not always result in a cure, since the tumors may already have spread and can recur at a later time.

Image-guided radiotherapy or body radiosurgery provide a non-invasive treatment alternative or complement to surgery in treating lung tumors. New body radiosurgery techniques with so-called “Adaptive Gating” can visualize the exact location of a moving tumor in real-time, and thereby overcome the challenges of respiration-induced movement, enabling clinicians to treat lung tumors with high doses, without harming surrounding healthy tissue.

Stereotactic Body Radiosurgery

For tumors, or lesions, that move or change size and shape and over the course of treatment precise targeting is crucial.

With Adaptive (Respiratory) Gating on the Novalis Tx™ radiosurgery platform, clinicians can now treat “moving” lung tumors with high doses of radiation, without harming surrounding healthy tissue. The image-guided radiosurgery device combines sophisticated beam shaping technology, precision targeting software, and robotics in order to precisely deliver a high dose of radiation to the tumor, while sparing more of the healthy surrounding tissue and organs.

By tracking the tumor’s movement and activating the radiation beam only when the lesion moves into the ‘gating window’, Adaptive (Respiratory) Gating reduces the radiation exposure to surrounding healthy tissue, particularly the lung and spinal cord.

Benefits of stereotactic body radiosurgery:

• Spares healthy tissue, reducing side effects
• Can improve treatment outcomes
• Patient-friendly approach allows natural breathing, ideal for patients with limited respiratory function
• Treatment typically lasts just minutes
• Can be performed without hospitalization

Find more information here: Novalis Radiosurgery - Shaping Cancer Care