Stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR)

• Stereotactic radiotherapy (SBRT) gives radiotherapy from many different positions around the body
  • the beams meet at the tumour
    • the tumour receives a high dose of radiation and the tissues around it only receive a low dose
  • also termed stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR)
    • characterized by high doses of radiation per fraction (5-34 Gy), few overall treatment fractions and an accurate tumour targeting system
      • doses delivered in SABR are in contrast to those given in conventionally fractionated radiotherapy, which are typically in the range of 1.8-2 Gy per fraction daily, delivered over several weeks
      • SABR has become widely available due to the advancement of technology in both imaging target tumours and in the precise delivery of radiation
        
        
  • lowers the risk of side effects
  • usually you have between 1 to 8 treatments
    • SBRT may be used to treat brain tumours and is called cranial stereotactic radiotherapy
      
      
  • this type of radiotherapy is mainly used to treat very small cancers, including:
    • lung cancer
    • liver cancer or liver metastases
    • cancers in the lymph nodes
    • spinal cord tumours
      

Reference:

• Lax I, Blomgren H, Näslund I, et al. Stereotactic radiotherapy of malignancies in the abdomen. Methodological aspects. Acta Oncol 1994;33:677-83
• Bezjak A. RTOG 0813: Seamless Phase I/II Study of Stereotactic Lung Radiotherapy (SBRT) for Early Stage, Centrally Located, Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) in Medically In-operable Patients.
• Meyer J, Wilbert J, Baier K, et al. Positioning accuracy of conebeam computed tomography in combination with a HexaPOD robot treatment table. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 2007;67:1220-8.
• Li Q, Mu J, Gu W, et al. Frameless stereotactic body radiation therapy for multiple lung metastases. J Appl Clin Med Phys 2014;15:4737.