Leksell stereotactic radiosurgery in the treatment of eye melanoma

Abstract

Current experiments indicate that a focussed single radiation treatment with a dose of 6000 to 9000 rads delivered to the 90% zone through a collimator of the Leksell stereotactic radiosurgical unit or 'gamma knife' to the rabbit eye melanoma model is capable of destroying the cancer totally and thus effecting a cure. The beneficial effect in these rabbit eye melanoma experiments appears to be similar to the results obtained by physicians using the Harvard and Berkeley cyclotrons in treating malignant neoplasms in the human eye. Therefore, it is proposed that a properly designed stereotactic radiosurgical unit can be used in patients with eye tumours similar to those selected for the cyclotron systems.