Looking for a physician that does FSR treatments in Eastern PA

[BeckyB]

I was wondering if anyone knows of a physician I should consider if I have FSR treatments done?  I live in the eastern part of Pennsylvania.

[BeJoi]

Hi Becky,

I'm doing FSR in Atlanta in a couple of weeks.  The way I went about it was that I did a lot of research on the web and on this site to see which radiation methods can be fractionated.  Then I searched for hospitals in the area which had these radiation methods, and I'm working with a radiation oncologist at a local hospital here.  The Trilogy System is what I'll be using at Piedmont in Atlanta and the radiation oncologist was trained on it at Emory (a teaching hospital here) by the expert here in Atlanta. 

Most neurosurgeons are trained to do surgery and gamma knife or cyberknife.  Usually they do not do FSR, which is why they don't typically recommend it.  I didn't get the information and support I wanted until I talked to a well-trained radiation oncologist about it.  FSR has not been used as long as GK and CK, but there is research on it and it does look promising, even though there are obviously cases of failure and poor side effects which you'll see on this site.

FSR is fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy.  If you go to pubmed.gov and search for it in regards to AN, you will find the latest research on it.  Also I've seen others here mention the Univ. of Pittsburgh site which apparently also has a lot of information on ANs.  You can also google the Trilogy System (Craig has it's website address on one of his posts) to find out more about it.  There probably is one in PA, and the site will locate it for you. 

If you do your research and read posts on this site, as well as consult with different kinds of doctors, you'll be able to make the right choice for you.  I wish you luck in your journey, and if you'd like to know more about my FSR treatments, I'll be starting on June 18 and I'll be posting my experience while I'm doing it.

Beverly

[Betsy]

Hi Becky,

I think it would be considered more central PA, but Geisinger in Danville offers both GK and Trilogy.  They've offered Trilogy for about a year now.  If you've never been there, don't let the rural setting deceive you.  This is NOT a little country hospital, believe me!  Here's a link to their website:  http://www.geisinger.org/consumers/

I've seen three doctors there (so far) and all three of them were great.  Dr Whitaker is an ENT, Dr Cohen is a surgeon, and Dr Gergel is a radiation oncologist.  I haven't actually been treated by them yet; I'm a "wait and watcher".  But all three were very kind and patient, and most importantly (and surprisingly) neutral and supportive of my decision.

They may not see hundreds of AN's there, but my sense is that they're very capable.  Check them out though...it's important that YOU feel comfortable with whoever is treating you.

Betsy

[Mark]

Beverly,

I'm sorry but I've just got to correct some wrong information in your post to Becky.

FSR is fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy.- This is partially correct. FSR is treatment done in stages as opposed to one treatment. Only GK is limited to doing only one treatment, although there are some that have attempted to do GK over several fractions with the obvious difficulty being having the frame attached for the duration. CK while capable of treating in one dose like GK is typically done in an FSR protocol of 3-5 days. GK and CK are both considered radiosurgical machines due to their higher accuracy than trilogy or Novalis which are considered radiotherapy machines. The formers higher accuracy allows for higher per treatment dose than the latter with less collateral exposure.

Most neurosurgeons are trained to do surgery and gamma knife or cyberknife.  Usually they do not do FSR, which is why they don't typically recommend it.  I didn't get the information and support I wanted until I talked to a well-trained radiation oncologist about it.  FSR has not been used as long as GK and CK, but there is research on it and it does look promising, even though there are obviously cases of failure and poor side effects which you'll see on this site. - Radiation Oncologists are typically trained on GK or CK although some neurosurgeons are as well. In the case of an AN they work as a team. GK has been around since 1969 and is what most were trained on initially. CK and Novalis both came out in the late 90's and trilogy is Varian's late entry into the competitive space occupied by Brainlab. Again, here you associate  FSR with only the radiotherapy machines and not CK which is incorrect. FSR is a newer protocol in terms of long term study results but it has been around for over 10 years.

I really don't want to be overly picky here but your description of FSR being unique to the radiotherapy machines and categorization of CK with GK is misleading

Mark

[BeJoi]

Thanks for clearing this up Mark.  I'm sure it will help everyone have a better understanding of the differences.

Beverly