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PET scanning and Gamma Knife® radiosurgery in the early diagnosis and salvage "cure" of locally recurrent nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Departments of ¹ Radiotherapy, ² Ear, Nose and Throat, St Bartholomew's Hospital, West Smithfield, London EC1A 7BE, UK

Correspondence: Dr Helen O'Donnell, MA, MRCP, FRCR, Department of Radiotherapy, St Bartholomew's Hospital, 25 Bartholomew's Close, West Smithfield, London EC1A 7BE, UK. E-mail: hodonnell{at}doctors.org.uk

"Gamma Knife® radiosurgery" is high-dose conformal radiation therapy used for the treatment of small target lesions in the head. It is a minimally invasive technique of multiple fixed, precisely aimed cobalt beams, and relies upon strict patient immobilization via a pinned stereotactic frame to deliver treatment to a precisely located target within a coordinated mapping system. This technique has been widely validated for the treatment of intra-cranial neoplasms and arteriovenous malformations. In this manuscript, two cases of early diagnosed, locally recurrent (persistent) nasopharyngeal carcinoma, successfully treated by Gamma Knife^®, are described. In one of these, early diagnosis by PET scanning may have improved the chance of cure.