The Asan Medical Center's (AMC) Radiation Surgery Center performed knife-free radiosurgery for 10,000 patients with brain tumor, cerebrovascular malformation, and brain disease, the hospital said Wednesday. It is the first hospital in Korea that saw the number exceeding 10,000-mark in radiosurgery for brain tumor patients.

Gamma Knife and Cyber Knife radiosurgery were used in the center to treat brain tumors in blood-free radiation surgery that minimizes complications such as infection and hemorrhage. The surgery can be customized to the individual condition of the brain diseases, such as cerebrovascular anomalies.

The Gamma Knife radiosurgery is a method of treating a tumor or vascular malformation by irradiating a gamma ray to a brain tumor region, while the Cyber Knife radiosurgery is a state-of-the-art radiotherapy that locates the tumor by radiologically irradiating it through a moving robot arm while tracking it with an image guiding technique.

The Asan Medical Center Radiation Surgery Center achieved a record of treating 10,000 brain patients with Gamma and Cyber knife radiosurgery.

AMC서울아산병원 surpassed 6,000 cases of Gamma Knife radiosurgery in July 2012, followed by about 3,000 cases in a short period of five years. It has shown a high clinical success rate through its clinical experience and sophisticated surgical system.

Out of the 8,936 patients who underwent Gamma Knife radiosurgery, 3,804 patients (42.6 percent) were suffering malignant brain tumors and the success rate of treatment was 90 percent.

Another 2,978 (33.3 percent) patients had the surgery for benign brain tumors, including meningioma and auditory neoplasms. They had the highest cure rates of about 93 percent. Another 1,786 patients (20 percent) had the surgery for cerebrovascular diseases such as cerebral artery venous anomalies, and 368 patients (4.1 percent), trigeminal neuralgia and epilepsy.

AMC has recently introduced the Leksell Gamma Knife icon, which is an upgraded version of the Gamma Knife Perfection Equipment.

Cyber Knife radiosurgery can be applied to the whole body such as chest, abdomen, and spine in addition to the brain or head and neck because it radiates only the tumor by tracking the location of the tumor which varies slightly depending on the patient's movement or breathing.

In Cyber Knife radiosurgery, metastatic brain tumors showed favorable treatment success rate of 90 percent and benign brain tumors of 95 percent. The total number of Cyber Knife radiosurgery operations in the AMC is 1,800 cases, including spine, lung, and prostate.

According to an analysis of 1,064 patients who underwent Cyber Knife radiosurgery, 425 patients (40 percent) had metastatic brain tumors, and 639 patients (60 percent) had benign brain tumors including meningioma, pituitary adenomas, and auditory cancers.

Metastatic brain tumors accounted for the majority of both Gamma Knife and Cyber Knife radiosurgery because of the organic coordination between neurosurgeons, oncologists, and radiation oncologists to obtain the best therapeutic effect in metastatic brain tumors.

Also, the AMC’s Radiation Surgery Center provides quick and comfortable treatments to patients based on the same-day surgical system that does not require a separate waiting room or accommodation.

"Asan Medical Center has been expanding its application to the treatment of patients with functional brain diseases in addition to metastatic brain tumors, cerebrovascular malformations, benign and malignant brain tumors based on their experience and knowledge of radiation surgery for 27 years,” said Noh Sung-woo노성우, a neurosurgical professor of the Radiation Surgery Center. “It is a distinctive merit of our hospital to provide optimal treatment to individual patients by harmonizing the know-how of accumulated Gamma Knife and the new concept of Cyber Knife."

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