Gamma knife zaps brain tumours: surgeons

It's called a knife, and it's cutting edge in the fight against cancer.

Yet it's not a knife, at least in the conventional sense.

It's a gamma knife, the weapon of choice against brain tumours, and now it's in use for the first time in Australia.

Gamma means gamma rays, emitted by radioactive cobalt-60 sources.

Two hundred of these sources are ranged about a patient's head, firing their radiation in directions that all converge on the tumour.

As the beams travel through the brain they're too weak individually to cause any damage, but where they meet, the energy is intense enough to kill the cancer.

Neurosurgeon John Fuller, who will be using the gamma knife at Macquarie University Hospital in Sydney, says it's much faster than traditional surgery.

"Although our first patient has tumours in multiple parts of his brain, we'll only need to do one operation lasting an hour or so," Dr Fuller said in a statement on Tuesday.

"The patient will be awake through the entire procedure and will only receive a local anaesthetic.

"It will be possible for him to go home tonight."

The gamma knife will save money as well as lives, Dr Fuller says, referring to one study which found it can free up to 700 intensive care beds a year.

While it's the preferred treatment for cancers which have spread to the brain, it's also used to correct congenital defects in veins and arteries.