You will need to go to hospital before you have radiotherapy to plan your treatment. This will involve simulation and having a mask made. It may take more than one trip to hospital before everything is ready.
Radiotherapy for brain tumours
Information on radiotherapy treatment for brain tumours.
Radiotherapy for brain tumours
Radiotherapy is when high-energy X-rays are aimed at tumour cells to kill them. Radiotherapy can also be used after surgery to kill any tumour cells left behind. The dosage and length of treatment can vary between patients, even between those with the same type of tumour. The course can be several treatments over a number of days or weeks (6-8 weeks).
Radiotherapy can also be used to control and relieve symptoms. This is called palliative radiotherapy. You will need between 1 and 10 doses of palliative radiotherapy to relieve your symptoms.
Brain tumours can be treated with very precise types of radiotherapy like three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3D-CRT) and intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT). The radiotherapy is aimed precisely at the tumour, while doing the least damage to nearby normal cells.
It’s very important that you discuss the planned surgery with your doctor and specialist nurse so that you know what to expect after the operation. They may arrange for you to have counselling before or after the operation.
Planning radiotherapy
Simulation
Simulation means working out exactly where the radiotherapy beams will be aimed. A CT scanner will be used to plan the places the radiotherapy needs to target.
Making your mask
You will wear a mask during treatment to keep your head still, so that the radiotherapy targets the right area. The mask is moulded from plastic to the shape of your face. Marks are put on the mask to show where treatment will be given. Read more about masks for radiotherapy.
Short term side-effects
- Tiredness (fatigue)
- Headaches
- Hair loss in the treated area
- Skin changes in the treatment area
- Drowsiness
- Nausea or feeling sick
Usually side-effect clear up in the weeks and months after treatment, but occasionally they can be long term.
Read more about radiotherapy and its side-effects.
Types of radiotherapy
Stereotactic radiotherapy and stereotactic radiosurgery are very precise types of radiotherapy for brain tumours.
Planning stereotactic radiotherapy and stereotactic radiosurgery
Because the area to be treated is smaller than with standard radiotherapy, it is very important that your head is still and in the same place during treatment. So you will need to wear a head frame or mask.
If you have a head frame it will be made to fit your head exactly, using information from scans. The head frame is attached to your skull using pins. Read more about masks and headframes.
Stereotactic radiotherapies
With stereotactic radiotherapy the radiotherapy beams are aimed at the tumour from many different directions around your head. Only a very small area is targeted with a high dose of radiotherapy. Because it is very precise, this treatment is less likely to affect healthy brain tissue near the tumour.
Stereotactic radiotherapy treatment is usually divided into between 3 and 30 daily doses called fractions.
Side-effects
Stereotactic radiotherapy treatment has fewer side effects than the usual type of radiotherapy, mainly because the area being treated is smaller. But you may feel tired for a while afterwards.
Radiosurgery is not actually surgery. It is a type of stereotactic radiotherapy that uses more radiation beams and gives a higher dose. Usually 1-5 sessions of very high dose stereotactic radiosurgery are required. Stereotactic radiosurgery treatment can take from 30 minutes up to a few hours.
There are different treatment machines that can deliver stereotactic radiosurgery. Linear accelerator, gamma-knife and cyberknife machines can all deliver this type of radiotherapy.
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