Alberta Radiosurgery Centre

Overview

The Alberta Radiosurgery Centre was a joint venture between Foothills Hospital and the Alberta Cancer Board, launched in November 2004. Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) uses high-energy photon radiation beams that penetrate a lesion from many different angles. The radiation dose is low for the separate beams, so that the healthy tissue radiation passes through is not damaged, save for the point where all beams meet at the location of the abnormality. Our technology represents the state-of-the-art in radiosurgery. Many conditions are treated including brain vascular malformations, metastatic brain tumours, and benign skull base tumours particularly meningiomas, acoustic neuromas and pituitary adenomas. We also treat trigeminal neuralgia and psychiatric conditions, under special circumstances. A unique aspect of the Novalis system that we use is that can be used for extracranial irradiation, specifically to treat spinal chordoma, metastases, as well as lung and prostate cancer.

 

Members

Neurosurgery: Drs. Zelma Kiss, Yves Starreveld, John Wong
Radiation Oncology: Drs. Alex Chan, Harold Lau, Gerald Lim, Robert Nordal, Jon-Paul Voroney
Medical Physics: Karen Breitman, Alana Hudson, Drs. Chris Newcomb, David Spencer
Nursing: Rhonda Manthey
Radiation Therapists: Carol Boyle, Jaswir Kalha, Jenn Rudyk
Dosimetrists: Darren Graham, Daphne Walrath, Nathan Wolfe
Administration: Erin Mckimmon

 

Educational and Research Activities

• Fellowships in Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery and SRS for Radiation Oncology
• Clinical projects include the following:
  • Referral patterns for spinal cord compression,
  • Image-guided frameless stereotactic radiotherapy for spine tumours,
  • Time and Motion Study examining the costs of stereotactic radiation,
  • Outcomes of treating cavernous sinus tumours on standard linac with daily X-rays,
  • Radiotherapy of Acoustic Neuroma: Fractionated Stereotactic Radiotherapy (FSRT) versus Intensity Modulated RT (IMRT),
  • Quality of life in patients treated with stereotactic radiotherapy and radiosurgery
• ARC is also a site for the RTOG multicentre clinical trial of SRS alone vs. SRS + whole brain radiotherapy for metastases

 

Information for referring clinicians, patients and families

For more information please see www.albertaradiosurgerycentre.ca.

Grant Support

• BrainLab, Inc.
• Anonymous donor(s)
• ACB Nursing and RT Innovation Fund

 

 

 

Updated: 2009-09-03