Stereotactic Radiosurgery (SRS)

If you’re dealing with a brain tumor diagnosis, stereotactic radiosurgery is a short, comfortable surgical alternative. 

SRS’s concentrated radiation beams can diminish your tumor’s size before surgery or prevent its return afterwards.

Our approach to stereotactic radiosurgery

At UCI Health, our multidisciplinary approach to care and close collaborations between specialists means you benefit from a streamlined, efficient process. We take pride in delivering compassionate, patient-centered treatment. 

Our open communication style also safeguards you from a scattered care experience. And we believe that when you work with us, you’ll develop a lifelong relationship with your doctors. 

About SRS treatment

Stereotactic radiosurgery treats brain tumors with one to five doses of concentrated, short bursts of radiation. We use SRS to treat:

• Benign or malignant primary tumors (tumors that originate in the brain)
• Metastatic brain tumors (tumors that originate elsewhere in the body that have spread to the brain)
• Trigeminal neuralgia (a pain disorder originating in the brain)

Typically, we treat brain tumors with surgery, radiation and/or targeted therapies. After our radiation oncologists, neurosurgeons and medical oncologists confer about your specific case, they will propose a personalized, tailor-made treatment. They’ll have a nuanced conversation examining the molecular features of your disease, what drugs are appropriate and what’s truly best.

What you can expect

If stereotactic radiosurgery is the optimal treatment option for your condition, you can expect:

• To get your time back - SRS treatments are eight times faster than other options, and each session is 45 minutes
• Precise targeting - we pinpoint the tumor with great accuracy, sparing surrounding tissue and structures of the brain
• Personalized attention - our radiation oncologist meets with you directly 
• Patient support - our social workers and chaplains are here to soothe the emotional, spiritual and practical challenges of having a brain tumor

How to work with us

If you have a metastatic brain tumor, you’re already established with the medical oncologist who is treating you. After getting a scan that reveals a brain tumor, it’s likely that your medical oncologist will refer you to us.

For symptoms like sudden debilitating headaches, blurry vision or cognitive difficulties, go to the emergency room. There, an imaging scan can reveal a brain lesion and you may be referred to the UCI Health Radiation Oncology Program.

You could already be in the UCI Health system and newly diagnosed with a brain tumor. Your medical oncologist might have a neurosurgeon assess you. We often get referrals from neurosurgeons to explore how radiation can support and enhance your treatment plan.

What is the difference between radiation therapy and stereotactic radiosurgery?

Radiation therapy is an umbrella term. While we use radiation to shrink tumors and kill cancer, its broad beams cover larger treatment areas. That’s why we use it for other conditions too like thyroid disease and blood disorders.

Stereotactic radiosurgery is radiation that we use specifically for brain tumors. It delivers concentrated radiation that only targets the tumor. This targeted treatment reduces side effects, including cognitive issues, compared to older methods like whole-brain radiation.

How do I know if I’m a candidate for stereotactic radiosurgery?

We use SRS whether your brain tumor is benign or malignant. It might be the right treatment for you if you fall into one or more of these categories:

• Your brain tumor is on the smaller side
• Surgeons cannot access it
• You don’t respond well to anesthesia

Your doctor will know if he or she prefers SRS based on your imaging test results and complete evaluation. SRS is not right for everyone; in that case, we’ll steer you towards a more appropriate treatment.

Who performs stereotactic radiosurgery?

The primary doctor who performs an SRS procedure is a radiation oncologist. At UCI Health, a multidisciplinary team delivers all aspects of your SRS care. It will usually be a combination of:

• Expert radiation oncologists
• Neuroradiologist
• Neurosurgeon
• Medical oncologist
• Medical physicist 
• Dosimetrist 
• Radiation therapist
• Registered nurse
• Other healthcare providers as needed

We are one of few programs in the region with on-site, full-time experts, a medical physicist and dosimetrist. These two specialists maintain radiation safety protocols, and design and monitor treatment strategies for you.

What happens during treatment?

After your CT scan or MRI, your treatment team will determine what method and dose is best for you. You'll meet with your radiation oncologist to go over everything that you should expect in the coming weeks. You’ll come in to be fitted with a frame that keeps your head still.

When you come in for treatment, some details may vary slightly depending on which tool we use. But generally speaking, you’ll wear loose fitting clothing. 

You will enter the treatment room and lie on the radiation device’s flatbed or couch as it’s known. We’ll position your head in the frame to keep it still. This precision ensures the energy beams only focus on your tumor.

The device then circles your head and irradiates your tumor. You won’t feel or see anything emerging from the machine. You will leave feeling the same way you did when you came in.

Benefits of SRS treatment

The most important benefits of SRS treatments include: 

• Hyper-targeted precision that spares the healthy surrounding tissue
• Current, advanced technology delivers rapid radiation
• You avoid surgery, complications and side effects or older treatments
• Because it’s an outpatient procedure, you avoid overnight hospital stays 

Benefits of specific radiation therapies

TrueBeam™
UCI Health is one of the only healthcare providers in Orange County to offer TrueBeam. The tool uses three-dimensional imaging to sculpt beams matching the exact shape of your tumor, leaving surrounding healthy tissue intact. The other benefits to you are shorter treatment times, which reduce potential side effects, and less discomfort. 

RapidArc™ Radiotherapy Technology
RapidArc delivers a full dose of radiation while minimizing exposure to your nearby healthy organs. Treatments take as little as two minutes. 

Gamma Knife®
The Gamma Knife works with potent gamma rays, destroying brain tumors and lesions as if they’d been surgically removed. The dose is an intense but safe single beam.

CyberKnife®
Despite its high intensity, CyberKnife delivers significantly less radiation to the surrounding normal tissue. Unlike Gamma Knife, it uses multiple beams.

How to prepare for SRS treatment

There is no special preparation for SRS treatment. You can eat as you normally would before the session. We don’t need or use anesthesia. There is no special need for pain medication unless you’re already taking it, for instance for a metastatic cancer condition.

The SRS treatment experience is very similar to coming in for a CT scan or MRI. 

What happens after my SRS treatment?

Generally speaking, there's no restriction on your activities after your SRS treatment. About a month afterwards, you’ll come in for an appointment with your radiation oncologist. They’ll give you an MRI scan and set up a long-term follow-up schedule.

Why choose UCI Health for SRS treatment?

The data shows that this advanced technology delivers superb results, but the heart of our practice is our multidisciplinary approach

We’ve established a very close collaboration between the radiation oncologists, neurosurgeons, and medical oncologists responsible for your evaluation and treatment. We first confer to choose the best possible course of action. Know that in the long-term, you’ll benefit from the collective wisdom of our multidisciplinary follow-up care.

Our radiation therapy team meets every week to make sure your treatment is progressing as planned

Our radiation oncologists also meet with other UCI Health brain tumor experts to coordinate additional treatments, as needed.

As an academic medical center, we specialize in advanced research and offer clinical trials

For example, we have offered clinical trials specific to brain metastasis. We’ve conducted radiosurgery trials for glioblastoma and meningioma as well as many others. If an appropriate trial is available and you qualify, you may get access to novel treatments not widely available elsewhere. You would also be greatly helping all future brain tumor patients.