BENEFITS

• Non invasive – no surgery involved, the only component passing into the brain is invisible x-ray beams.
• Convenience – typically done as an outpatient, and for SRS as a day only procedure, with all patients wide awake during the procedure. Children have this whole procedure done under a general anaesthetic, thus requiring admission to hospital.
• Results – in most situations comparable to surgery, with lower likelihood of morbidity. Can even be used where previous radiotherapy has been given.
• Safety – although risks exist, these are usually less than 5% likelihood of major morbidity, the exact extent relating to the site, and dose delivered. This approach allows a much lower dose of radiation to be given to the surrounding brain compared to conventional radiotherapy.
• Recovery – return to work or normal life function is the norm a few days after SRS, or continuing during SRT.

Disadvantages:

• The time to benefit can take months to years, the criteria of benefit being in many situations lack of progression of the lesion. However as with all treatments there is no guarantee of success.
• There are risks associated with this procedure, which are directly related to the site, size and dose used. The larger the lesion the lower the dose that needs to be used to be safe. This can sometimes reduce the effectiveness of the procedure.
• For the radiosurgery procedure only the lesion seen on the scan can be treated - it is not possible to extend the treatment out into adjacent normal tissues to cover possible microscopic disease.