Stereotactic Radiosurgery

Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) is essentially surgery without surgery. It involves delivering extremely precise, concentrated, highly focused radiation to a brain or spinal lesion, sparing the healthy tissue surrounding it. Stereotactic radiosurgery is generally used if you have:

  • A lesion with well-defined borders
  • A lesion less than 3 cm in diameter
  • An unacceptable risk of open surgery

At Mount Sinai, we commonly use stereotactic radiosurgery to treat:

  • Brain tumors. Radiosurgery is used to treat many types of benign and malignant brain tumors, including primary and metastatic tumors and single or multiple lesions. Sometimes radiosurgery is performed after conventional surgery to treat residual tumor cells. 
  • Arteriovenous Malformations (AVMs). SRS is also used to treat arteriovenous malformations  — tangles of expanded blood vessels that disrupt normal blood flow in the brain, sometimes causing episodes of bleeding.
  • Spine tumors. Cancer can spread to the spine, most frequently from the prostate, lung, or breast. Because such spinal metastases (spread), it can cause serious consequences, it is important to undergo treatment as quickly as possible. Pain is usually the first and one of the most debilitating symptoms. Stereotactic radiosurgery for spinal metastasis provides rapid pain relief in a majority of cases, often within days of treatment. SRS can be used as a stand-alone treatment for spinal metastases or as a supplement to traditional treatments, such as pain medication, surgery, conventional radiation therapy, and chemotherapy.

We use stereotactic radiosurgery to treat the following conditions:

  • Acoustic neuroma
  • Arteriovenous malformations of the brain and spine
  • Brain tumors, benign or malignant, including recurrent
  • Glioma and glioblastoma
  • Meningioma
  • Metastasis
  • Pituitary adenoma
  • Spine tumors, benign or malignant, including recurrent spine tumors

Please call the Mount Sinai Brain Tumor Program at 212-241-9638 to learn whether stereotactic radiosurgery is the right treatment choice for your condition.