Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) refers to a single radiation treatment delivering a high dose to an intra-cranial target localized in three-dimensions by CT and/or MRI imaging. Traditionally, immobilization of the patient?s head has been achieved using a rigid stereotactic head frame as the key step in allowing for accurate dose delivery. SRS has been delivered by both Cobalt-60 (Gamma Knife®) and linear accelerator (linac) technologies for many decades. The focus of this review is to highlight recent advances and major innovations in SRS technologies relevant to clinical practice and developments allowing for non-invasive frame SRS.

Key words: Stereotactic; Radiosurgery; Technology; Image guidance.

Affiliation of Authors

¹Department of Radiation Oncology, Sunnybrook Odette Cancer Centre, the Princess Margaret Hospital, and the Joey Toby Tanenbaum family Gamma Knife Center, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
²Departments of Radiation Oncology and Neurosurgery, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
³Department of Radiation Oncology, Sunnybrook Odette Cancer Centre, and the Joey Toby Tanenbaum family Gamma Knife Center, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
⁴Department of Radiation Oncology, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA
⁵Department of Radiation Physics, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA
⁶Department of Radiation Oncology, Princess Margaret Hospital, and the Joey Toby Tanenbaum family Gamma Knife Center, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
⁷Department of Radiation Oncology, Baylor Medical College, Houston, Texas, USA.
⁸Division of Neurosurgery, St. Michaels Hospital, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
⁹Division of Neurosurgery, Toronto Western Hospital, and the Joey Toby Tanenbaum family Gamma Knife Center, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
¹⁰Department of Neurosurgery, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, and the Joey Toby Tanenbaum family Gamma Knife Center, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
¹¹Department of Radiation oncology, Duke Center for Radiosurgery, Hilsborough, North Carolina, USA.