New breakthrough treatment for spinal cancer patients at M...( The Mount Sinai Medical Center is the ...),Health

The Mount Sinai Medical Center is the only hospital in New York City using the Novalis Shaped Beam Surgery System on spinal cancer. Novalis is the most advanced Stereotactic Radiosurgery(SRS) technology available to treat cancer tumors in the spine. Doctors at Mount Sinai are at the forefront of this medical breakthrough in neurosurgery and radiation oncology, using this technology to control deadly and complicated tumors from the spine for the first time ever.

"Hope is being given to patients with malignant and ultimately fatal spinal tumors where hope was never before available," said Dr. Isabelle Germano, Professor of Neurosurgery and Co-Director of The Radiosurgery Program at The Mount Sinai Medical Center. "All it takes is one thirty-minute out-patient treatment of pinpointed radiation and the tumor shrinks along with the pain from the cancer. Now cancer spreading to the spine doesn't mean a lifetime of pain or a wheelchair for a patient anymore."

Extremely precise, highly focused radiation is beamed directly into the spinal tumor, while sparing the normal surrounding tissue. Mount Sinai has had the Novalis Shaped Beam Surgery System technology since 2005. It is routinely used on the brain, head, neck, prostate and other tumors in the body with success. It is a friendly outpatient, non-invasive and non-surgical incisionless procedure. Patient risk is lowered, outcomes are improved, quality of life for patients enhanced, cancer pain eliminated, and the tumor is destroyed. Patients can continue to live a pain-free life and maintain complete mobility.

"The future of radiation oncology and stopping cancer in its track is now at Mount Sinai. This is the best treatment available for tumors that have spread to the spine with the least risk of damage to surrounding healthy tissue," said Dr. Sheryl Green, Co-Director of The Radiosurgery Program and Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology at Mount Sinai. "We are now able to treat meta
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The Mount Sinai Hospital / Mount Sinai School of Medicine
16-May-2007