STEREOTAXIC MULTIPLE ARC RADIOTHERAPY .4. HEMANGIOBLASTOMA

Our initial experience in the treatment of haemangioblastoma using con ventional external beam radiotherapy and stereotactic radiotherapy (ra diosurgery), by the linear accelerator method, is reported. Six haeman gioblastomas in five patients were treated with a mean follow-up of 40 months (range 14-60). Five haemangioblastomas in four patients were t reated with stereotactic radiotherapy, where four showed complete radi ological response and the fifth was static. Neurological symptoms and signs improved in those patients. The sixth haemangioblastoma was situ ated close to the pituitary and optic chiasm, and was treated with con ventionally fractionated external beam radiotherapy. The lesion showed partial response. No complications were not-ed in this patient group. This series complements and extends the relatively sparse published l iterature demonstrating that radiotherapy is an effective option for t reating haemangioblastomas. Radiosurgery often lends itself particular ly well to these discrete lesions allowing highly focused treatment. F or patients with multiple and metachronous cerebellar haemangioblastom as as part of the von Hipple-Lindau syndrome, the data support a polic y of conventionally fractionated external beam radiotherapy to the who le cerebellum of 50-55 Gy followed, after a period of time, by radiosu rgery to persisting lesions (patients 3 and 4).