State Of The Art Technology
First Patient Treated With Indiana's Only Gamma Knife

INDIANAPOLIS --An Indianapolis woman will be the first patient to be treated with Indiana's only Gamma Knife, a state-of-the-art, non-invasive technology that uses radiation instead of a scalpel to arrest the growth of tumors and obliterate vascular malformations deep inside the brain.

The procedure will be performed Monday morning, Sept. 8, at the Indiana Lions Gamma Knife Center at Indiana University Hospital of Clarian Health.

Gamma Knife radiosurgery combines a highly potent radiation dose with sub-millimeter accuracy to make it an extremely sophisticated therapeutic tool.

Monday's patient, Ann Weifenbach, will have a tumor treated on her facial nerve. If traditional surgical procedures were used to remove the tumor, Ms. Weifenbach would suffer nerve damage and facial paralysis. Thomas Witt, M.D., and Robert D. Timmerman, M.D., co-directors of the Gamma Knife program, estimate that the actual procedure will take less than 30 minutes.

Drs. Witt and Timmerman, who will perform Monday's procedure, said preparation for the outpatient, non-invasive surgery will take approximately 2.5 hours and that Ms. Weifenbach could be released from the hospital by noon that day.

The 20-ton Gamma Knife, housed in the basement of the Indiana Cancer Pavilion, was delivered June 2. Technical adjustments to the cobalt-60 source unit and completion of other details were made during the summer in preparation for the initial procedure.

Patients are treated with up to 201 gamma ray beams. The rays are directed through openings in a stereotactic collimator helmet to a precisely defined target in the brain. Because each beam is not powerful individually, it does not harm the healthy tissue as it travels through to its point of convergence with the other gamma rays. Once the rays converge, however, they gain enough power to destroy the unwanted problem area without affecting the normal surrounding brain tissue. One of the biggest advantages of the Gamma Knife system is that the design of the helmet allows the placement of the beams to be adjusted in such a way as to conform to the regular or irregular shape of the target area.

Tumors or vascular malformations usually can be successfully treated with only one procedure.

The Gamma Knife is ideal for treatment of many types of benign and malignant tumors of the brain which would be untouchable with traditional surgery. It also is used for precision treatment of vascular malformations deep inside the brain and conditions such as trigeminal neuralgia, which causes facial pain. It also has proven useful in obliterating small lesions left after conventional surgery.

Placing the Gamma Knife in a university research setting holds great promise for the continued development of innovative treatments. Research continues into its use for treatment of functional disorders such as epilepsy and Parkinson's disease. IU School of Medicine researchers plan to study new ways of treating pituitary tumors which produce hormones affecting the patient's metabolism. Researchers also are developing a frame that will be more easily taken on and off the head, which could allow for multiple treatments for brain lesions or tumors.

IUSM researchers also are pioneering the translation of this technology for treatment elsewhere in the body. They are among a handful of researchers using a stereotactic body frame so the advantages of Gamma Knife radiosurgery can be directed to tumors in the chest and abdomen.

Physician teams from both IU and Methodist will treatment patients with Gamma Knife radiotactic surgery.

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