AdventHealth Radiation Oncologist
In April 2024, the AdventHealth Neuroscience Institute became the first in Central Florida to treat brain patients with the Elekta Esprit Gamma Knife. This advanced stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) system delivers ablative radiation with pinpoint precision to targets in the brain while sparing surrounding healthy brain tissue.
The new Gamma Knife platform can treat a variety of malignant and benign conditions using a minimally invasive approach. This includes conditions such as brain metastases in critical brain locations, benign tumors like meningiomas, and functional neurological conditions like trigeminal neuralgia and essential tremor, all without the need for conventional neurosurgery and subsequent post-surgical healing and rehabilitation.
Expanded Capabilities to Personalize Treatment
AdventHealth has extensive experience in radiosurgery, performing more than 5,000 Gamma Knife procedures since 1996. The latest upgrade to the Esprit Gamma Knife will enhance care in several ways:
- The new platform integrates an advanced on-boarding imaging system to ensure treatment accuracy and precision by continuously monitoring patient position and motion throughout the treatment session.
- A new lighter-weight fiberglass stereotactic head frame will improve patient comfort.
- The new platform also offers the ability to perform frameless radiosurgery for select patients. Instead of being immobilized with a headframe, patients can be treated with a face mask. When combined with the onboard 3D CT imaging and continuous patient motion monitoring, the face mask system offers treatment accuracy and precision.
With frameless radiosurgery, physicians gain the option to offer fractionated stereotactic radiation therapy (treatment over multiple sessions which may be needed for larger targets, more sensitive brain locations, or prior irradiated targets). Fractionated radiosurgery also enables physicians to more easily treat patients who have numerous lesions, helping people to avoid the toxicity of other alternatives such as whole brain radiotherapy, which can cause memory issues, fatigue, and hair loss.
“The new features of the Esprit Gamma Knife provide greater clinical versatility,” explains AdventHealth Radiation Oncologist Imran Mohiuddin, MD, PhD. “It is a paradigm shift that allows more patients to pursue highly effective and less toxic treatment, helping to preserve and extend quality of life.”
Additionally, Dr. Mohiuddin emphasizes that Gamma Knife can easily and safely be integrated into most patients’ multidisciplinary care. For example, Gamma Knife can be offered immediately before any planned chemotherapy. Alternatively, for patients already on scheduled chemotherapy (i.e., every 3 weeks), radiosurgery can be safely utilized on week 2 or 3 (before the next chemotherapy cycle) without delaying start of the next chemotherapy cycle.
“Esprit Gamma Knife is a fantastic upgrade to our already diverse arsenal of anti-cancer tools,” says Dr. Mohiuddin. “I am proud to be able to offer customized options to suit patients’ needs.”