Relaxation Techniques Help Brain Cancer Patient during Her Radiosurgery Treatment
Kitta Reeds was scheduled to receive a single radiosurgery treatment for two tumors in her brain, and naturally, she was feeling anxious about the procedure, even though she knew it was necessary. One essential aspect of the treatment was that she would be immobilized on the treatment table, her head set into a custom-molded mask. While a vast improvement over more invasive forms of immobilization that involve attaching screws to the patient's skull, the mask, which is bolted to the table, feels confining. But it helps to keep patients from moving, allowing the clinicians to achieve high levels of accuracy in treating brain tumors.
Though confident in her clinicians and the technology they'd be using, Kitta still worried that once she was immobilized, she would start to panic. "I'm prone to worry whenever I feel like I don't have control over a situation. I knew the longer I had to lie still, the more I'd start feeling this way," said Kitta, 73, a former technical writer and editor. "When the doctors told me the treatment would be delivered in just one session on a single day, I had to ask, ‘But how many hours will it take?'"
Doctors reassured her by explaining more about her radiosurgery treatment, which they would deliver using Novalis Tx™ radiosurgery technology from Varian Medical Systems and BrainLAB. She learned that radiosurgery is a technique for delivering powerful doses of radiation over a short period of time. It is non-invasive, which means that doctors do not make any cuts or incisions, but rather, attack the tumor with high-energy beams precisely shaped to converge on the tumor without overexposing nearby healthy tissue.
"Even though I knew that no one would hurt me, or even touch me, the fact remained that my head would be in a mask bolted to the table," said Kitta.
To help her through the experience, she worked with a medical social worker to devise several relaxation techniques. On the day she was treated, in January 2009, she remembers counting backwards from 50. Another mental trick was to compare her experience to a Bible story she'd learned as a child.
"I kept imaging I was the baby Moses floating on the river in the basket made of bulrushes. Like him, I was contained, and I felt a little helpless," she said. "But I kept reminding myself that he had been safe, and so was I. I kept repeating, this is going to cure me, it's going to heal me."
The radiosurgery session was divided between the tumors, with one treated in 22 minutes, and the second treated in 43 minutes. Including the required setup time, the entire session lasted a little over an hour.
"It was an amazing benefit to be treated this quickly," said Kitta, who one year earlier received a much longer course of radiation therapy for metastatic lung cancer. "That was in the summer of 2008, and I received 15 radiotherapy treatments spread out over three weeks. After those treatments were through, I experienced some side effects. But with my single radiosurgery treatment I didn't have any, not even a headache. In fact, the day after my treatment I celebrated my birthday with my family."
Kitta had to wait to eight weeks before her doctor could determine the efficacy of the radiosurgery. In April of 2009, she sat across from her doctor, discussing what he had learned from recent imaging studies. One tumor had dropped from 8 millimeters in length to 3 and was still shrinking. The other, which had been 3 millimeters long, was completely gone.
"After hearing the outcome, I gave my doctor a big hug," said Kitta. "Treating two lesions in one day in a little over an hour—it's an amazing technique. I think this kind of treatment will change the way patients think about radiation therapy. It did for me."
