Heavy Particle Irradiation of the Pituitary

Heavy-Charged-Particle Radiosurgery of the Pituitary Gland: Clinical Results of 840 Patients

“…Stereotactic helium-ion irradiation has proven to be very effective as the treatment of acromegaly [8,11,13,14,15]. …”

“…Stereotactic helium-ion radiosurgery has been applied successfully to the treatment of Cushing's disease in 83 patients [8,11,13,14,15,16]. Mean basal cortisol levels and dexamethasone suppression testing returned to normal values within 1 year after treatment, and remained normal during .…”

“…In 1958, the charged-particle radiosurgery program was expanded to include patients with endocrine and metabolic disorders of the pituitary gland, i.e., acromegaly, Cushing's disease, Nelson's syndrome, prolactinsecreting adenomas and chromophobe adenomas [8,11,13,14,15,16]. ·In the 441 patients with hormone-secreting tumors, the therapeutic goal has been to destroy or inhibit the growth of the pituitary tumor and control hormonal hypersecretion, while preserving a functional rim of tissue with normal hormone-secreting capacity, and minimizing neurologic injury [11,13,15]; an additional 34 patients with nonsecreting chromophobe adenomas were treated to alleviate sequelae of an expanding mass lesion (Table 1).…”

Comparison of different radiation types and irradiation geometries in stereotactic radiosurgery

“…There has bee11 a recent surge in interest in stereotactic radiosurgery of intracranial lesions, such as arteriovenous malformations (AVMs), tumors and isolated metastases [3,4,6,7,9,11,12,13]. Much experience has been gained at a number of medical centers around the world in the past three decades [1,4,6,8,12,13].…”

Stereotactic frame for neuroradiology and -charged particle bragg peak radiosurgery of intracranial disorders

“…The heavy charged particle beams from the 184-incb Synchrocyclotron and the Bevatron at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (LBL) have now been used to treat a number of brain disorders, including pituitary tumors and other neurometabolic disorders [16], to suppress pituitary function in metastatic breast cancer and diabetic retinal angiopathy [17] [8] [9], intracranial AVMs [3] [4] and uveal melanomas [13].…”