Stereotactic radiosurgery of deeply seated low grade gliomas

The authors report the results of a series of 16 cases of low-grade gliomas in whom radiosurgery was performed. This series started in 1977. All the tumours received a single radiosurgical session (with a mean dose of 21.7 Gy, 5-10 mm. collimator; one patient received two sessions and in another patient two different targets were irradiated in the same session). Prior to radiosurgery, six patients received conventional external fractionated radiotherapy, with two lateral fields of up to 10 x 10 cm. and a mean dose of 55.1 Gy and another six patients with tumours less than 5 cm. in diameter, received stereotactic radiotherapy using four fields of up to 5 x 5 cm. and a mean dose of 53.1 Gy. In both cases, conventional fractionation was used, giving a dose of 1.8 to 2 Gy/day. The tumour disappeared in 8 cases (50%) and shunk or ceased its growth in 5 additional cases (31%). In 3 cases of brainstem gliomas in which the clinical condition was previously very poor there was no evolutional change and the patients eventually died. We conclude that radiosurgery is effective in the treatment of deeply seated low-grade gliomas, where it may become the treatment of choice in the absence of other more definitive choices.