Treatment for Acromegaly

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Radiation Therapy

Radiation therapy for acromegaly targets your pituitary tumor with energy waves. It’s typically only used if you can’t have surgery, or your surgery didn’t remove the entire tumor, and medications aren’t working well enough to control your symptoms. A common side effect is loss of function in your pituitary gland, and you may need treatment to replace other hormones it makes. Rarely, radiation therapy can cause vision loss, stroke, or other kinds of brain tumors.

Stereotactic

Stereotactic radiation therapy (sometimes called radiosurgery) uses 3D images to aim a high dose of radiation at a specific spot. This precision helps protect nearby tissues. Stereotactic radiation may take several years to work, and it is best for smaller tumors.

Conventional

Conventional radiation therapy also targets your tumor, but with less precision than the stereotactic kind. This treatment is given in smaller doses in several sessions over four to six weeks. Conventional radiation can also take years to reach its full effect, and it has a higher risk of damaging the pituitary gland.

Proton Beam

Proton beam radiation (PBT) uses protons (very small particles) to target your pituitary tumor. Like stereotactic radiation, this option has a lower risk of damage to the pituitary gland and nearby tissues. Both stereotactic and proton beam radiation are equally effective, but PBT causes less damage to nearby brain tissue, so it’s reserved for tumors that are very close to the optic nerve, says Balasubramanian.



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