Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy (SBRT)

Stereo­tac­tic Body Radi­a­tion Ther­a­py (SBRT) is a spe­cial type of radi­a­tion ther­a­py that pre­cise­ly focus­es a high-dose beam of radi­a­tion, through the use of a treat­ment-plan­ning com­put­er sys­tem, to an area of the body. One or sev­er­al stereo­tac­tic radi­a­tion treat­ments are gen­er­al­ly deliv­ered with­in the body, exclud­ing the brain or spine, with­out dam­ag­ing healthy tis­sue near­by. SBRT is best for very small ear­ly-stage tumors of the lung or iso­lat­ed tumors from var­i­ous types of can­cer. Treat­ments are usu­al­ly giv­en once a day for about a week, although this can vary depend­ing on the type of tumor or con­di­tion of the patient. The advan­tage of SBRT is it deliv­ers the high­er dose of radi­a­tion to a tumor in few­er num­ber of treat­ments than tra­di­tion­al treat­ments. Addi­tion­al­ly since it is very pre­cise there is lit­tle effect on near­by organs.