The UC Davis Medical Center Stereotactic Radiosurgery Program has acquired a new state-of-the-art gamma knife that uses radiation to perform brain surgery without a scalpel.

With the addition of the gamma knife, UC Davis becomes the only institution in the Sacramento region and one of a small number in the country equipped to offer patients two radiosurgery options. Since 1994, UC Davis has performed radiosurgery using the micro multileaf collimator, which can treat larger lesions. The new gamma knife system will treat smaller lesions with increased accuracy.

Both systems are used to treat brain tumors and blood vessel malformations once considered inaccessible or inoperable, without the normal risks associated with surgery and a long hospital stay.

"Having two systems increases our available options for radiosurgical treatment," says Allan Chen, director of the Stereotactic Radiosurgery Program. Stereotactic surgery describes a precise method of destroying deep-seated brain structures located by use of three-dimensional coordinates.

The Stereotactic Radiosurgery Program is located in the Radiation Oncology Clinic at the UC Davis Cancer Center, 4501 X Street, Sacramento.