Treating Brain & Spinal Cancer with New Technologies
Giving you the very best in cancer care is our top priority. Our cancer treatment centers across New Jersey are more than just hospitals—we are trailblazers in cancer care.
When it comes to treatments for brain and spinal cancer, your care team has a wide range of options that go beyond chemotherapy and radiation. These include non-invasive therapies such as the Gamma Knife and experimental alternatives that are part of clinical trials.
- Gamma Knife: The Gamma Knife is a single treatment of high-dose radiation that targets brain or cervical spine cancer with just one dose of radiation. It is a type or radiotherapy known as radiosurgery or stereotactic radiosurgery, but a knife isn’t involved—nor is the treatment an actual surgery. Gamma Knife uses very precise beams of gamma rays to treat an area of disease (lesion) or growth (tumor). The beams of gamma radiation send a very intense dose of radiation to a small area without a need to make an incision. A radiation oncologist performs this procedure, which is similar to the CyberKnife.
- Proton Beam Therapy: Proton beam therapy is a type of particle beam radiation therapy. Rather than using rays of radiation, like gamma rays or x-rays, particle beam therapy uses particles such as protons. This treatment is the most widely used type of particle beam therapy, and RWJBarnabas Health is pleased to offer this option to our patients. Proton therapy is useful in treating tumors or lesions that are small and/or have an irregular shape. The radiation dose and the beam can be more closely controlled with these systems, so it deposits energy almost completely into the tumor or lesion being treated. This is ideal for treating brain tumors, as there is less damage to the surrounding tissue.
Alongside these advanced treatment options, we are also a leading NJ health care provider for immunotherapy, a newer branch of cancer treatment that involves boosting the body’s immune system to fight the disease.
To contact one of New Jersey’s best brain and spine cancer specialists call
844-CANCERNJ or
844-226-2376.
