Day 27: Radiation therapy

Radiation therapy

Radiation can be given in small doses over a six-week period, or by a technique called stereotactic radiosurgery or gamma-knife radiation.


The Gamma Knife procedure, bombards lesions with enough radiation to destroy them even in the most critical, difficult-to-access areas of the brain without delivering significant does to healthy normal brain tissue. 
The 201 individual beams simultaneously intersect with the accuracy of less than one-tenth of a millimeter (about the thickness of a sheet of paper). Referred to as "surgery without a scalpel," the Gamma Knife procedure does not require an incision or opening the skull.

Cons:

•  One of the main drawbacks of radiation treatment is that it leads to delayed pituitary failure. This typically occurs several years after treatment, necessitating complete hormone replacement.
• Traditional radiation therapy side effects include fatigue, skin rashes during treatment, mouth and throat problems and possible sexual dysfunction.
•  Radiation therapy is typically reserved for pituitary tumors that cannot be cured surgically and are not controlled with medical drug therapy.

Pros:

• It’s an outpatient procedure which allows patients to go home in about half a day. 
• Only a single treatment is needed. The Gamma Knife treatment itself takes about an hour on average. 
• Patients can usually return to their normal routine within a day of the procedure. 
• Over 95% of patients are treated on an ambulatory basis and do not require hospitalization.

I know very few people who have gone through Radiation therapy. I think that it is not as common a form of treatment as surgery. Personally the idea of having radiation beams pointing at my head kind of scares me. Especially when I know that the effects/damages might not be fully identified until years after.