Radiation ‘knife’ cuts out tumour surgery

A NEW machine is offering painless treatment for head‚ brain and neck tumours by precisely delivering radiation to targeted areas in the brain without making incisions.

The Gamma Knife Icon was installed at Netcare Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg and is the first of its kind in Africa.

It beams small doses of radiation‚ acting like a scalpel‚ at a tumour from various directions.

“The way the Gamma Knife focuses the rays onto the tumour is very much like a magnifying glass harnessing the sun’s rays and focusing them on a pinpoint and creating a burn at that particular pinpoint area‚” said the hospital’s Dr Maurizio Zorio.

A local anaesthetic is administered before a metal frame is attached to the head, with screws drilled a few millimetres into the skull.

Patients are then attached to the Gamma Knife machine by securing their metal frame to the machine.

The treatment lasts between 20 and 90 minutes.

Maurio said the doses from various directions were small‚ but the “accumulative dose to the tumour is going to be very high”.

The machine was installed at the hospital in April.

Zorio said they first started using radiosurgery in the early 90s‚ but found it was not as accurate as the Gamma Knife. It took about two years to bring the machine to South Africa.

Deputy Minister of Health Dr Joe Phaahla said at the launch of the machine that worldwide about 40% of new cancer patients were diagnosed in lower and middle income countries.

Netcare CEO Dr Richard Friedland said South Africa was an incredibly divided nation‚ including its healthcare system‚ but hoped that the Gamma Knife would be available to the most vulnerable in our society who depend on the provision of the state for their healthcare. — DDC