Saint Alphonsus Team is the First in the Pacific Northwest to Utilize Targeted Brain Tumor Therapy

GammaTile Therapy Delivers Targeted Radiation to Cancer Cells

Drs. Ondrej Choutka, MD, a neurosurgeon, and Lindsay Sales, MD, a radiation oncologist at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise, have become the first doctors in the Pacific Northwest to utilize a new treatment for brain tumors. They implanted the FDA-cleared GammaTile therapy in a 44-year-old patient with a malignant brain tumor.

Dr. Ondrej Choutka prepares to


implant a GammaTile into a patient


during tumor surgery at Saint


Alphonsus Regional Medical


Center in Boise

The current standard of care for patients with operable malignant glioma tumors is surgical removal of the tumor followed by radiation and chemotherapy. Traditional radiation is delivered in as many as 30 treatments extending over a period of several weeks. GammaTiles, postage stamp-sized 3D collagen tiles embedded with radiation seeds, directly target cancer cells at the tumor cavity site. They are implanted by the surgeon and deliver ninety percent of the radiation dose in 33 days. After 100 days, the GammaTile radiation sources are exhausted, and the collagen tiles disintegrate.

“There are several advantages of this therapy that benefit the patient, including no additional trips to the hospital for radiation treatments, protection of healthy scalp and brain tissue, and lower overall level of radiation exposure,” Dr. Choutka said. “Additionally, GammaTile has been shown to limit side effects, including hair loss. It’s tremendous that Saint Alphonsus is able to be the first in Idaho and the Pacific Northwest to provide this cutting-edge cancer therapy.”

The GammaTiles are placed directly at the site of the tumor cavity after the tumor is removed. It takes about five minutes to place the tiles. Dr. Choutka performed the procedure on January 5.

“The patient was an ideal candidate for GammaTile intracranial brachytherapy. He had a recurrent brain tumor, which was previously treated with surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy. His tumor recurrence was a single brain lesion, and the patient had a good performance status with the ability to undergo repeat surgery as well as radiation,” said Dr. Lindsay Sales, MD, Saint Alphonsus Radiation Oncologist.

Dr. Choutka said the expertise of the team at Saint Alphonsus helped make the surgery a success. He highlighted the contributions of Sigen Wang, PhD, Lead Medical Physicist for the Saint Alphonsus Cancer Institute and Eric Colaianni, CNMT, Medical RSO, Saint Alphonsus Regional Director of Imagining. The team collaborated, wrote and implemented interdepartmental procedures to ensure patient and colleague safety while ensuring the nursing staff was educated about the safety of this new therapy and helped make sure all state regulations and policies were followed correctly.

Over 200,000 patients are diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumor in the U.S. each year. Aggressive brain tumors tend to be resistant to current treatments and have a high likelihood of recurrence. GammaTile is FDA-cleared for patients with newly diagnosed malignant brain tumors and recurrent brain tumors, including gliomas, glioblastomas, meningiomas, and brain metastases.