Piedmont Hospital launched the first SBRT program in the state of Georgia many years ago. Employing precision targeting, with live real-time CT scan verification just prior to treatment, very high doses of radiation can be delivered to a well-defined area, with minimal impact on adjacent normal tissues/organs. For example, SBRT is now a well-established treatment option for curative intent treatment of some lung cancers.
Also, patients sometimes develop several sites of distant metastatic disease (oligometastases) after successful treatment of the primary tumor itself, often several years after original treatment has been completed. These tumors are often slow-growing, and sometimes effective treatment can result in durable long-term control of the patient’s cancer. SBRT can be a highly effective and well tolerated treatment for such lesions. Treatment is typically completed in 3 to 5 visits over a 2-week period. Examples of patients who might benefit include those with spinal, liver, and abdominal lymph node metastases.