For many patients diagnosed with brain tumors, the outlook may seem very bleak and unpromising. However, thanks to gamma knife, treatment for many of these people has become much more promising, faster, and relatively painless. It has also allowed surgeons to treat lesions in the brain that were once considered inaccessible or inoperable.

Despite its name, gamma knife does not involve a knife at all, but rather, a helmet-like device through which patients receive highly focused beams of radiation that destroy tumors, but spare healthy tissues. Doctors can now reach the deepest recesses of the brain to treat a tumor so that it stops growing and eventually shrinks or disappears entirely. Because this procedure is so accurate, a high dose of radiation can be delivered precisely to its target with minimal risk to nearby structures and tissues.

The technology of gamma knife was originally developed in Sweden by Dr. Lars Leksell about 50 years ago. However, this procedure was not widely used for treatment until recently. With the rapid advancements in diagnostic imaging and computer technology, it has become much more common – approximately 100,000 patients have been treated at over 100 sites worldwide since 1968, and it is becoming increasingly common at a current cumulative rate of more than 20,000 patients per year.