Pittsburgh, April 2, 2010 -- The North America Gamma Knife Consortium -- a group of academic and clinical centers of excellence across the continent performing brain stereotactic radiosurgery using the Leksell Gamma Knife -- was recently formed to pool information to help improve outcomes. The University of Pittsburgh Center for Image-Guided Neurosurgery, under the direction of L. Dade Lunsford, MD, and Douglas Kondziolka, MD, is serving as the coordinating center for this group.

The primary goal of the NAGKC -- a non-profit scientific, educational, and research entity -- is to facilitate retrospective and prospective clinical trials and outcomes analysis that evaluate the role of Gamma Knife radiosurgery in a wide spectrum of clinical indications. Because individual centers may evaluate only a small number of patients with rare conditions, pooling of information is critical to evaluate and to improve outcomes.

The organizations comprising the NAGKC represent some of the leading neurological surgeons, radiation oncologists, medical physicists and researchers from leading academic medical facilities in the United States and Canada. Since its inception, the NAGKC has activated a number of retrospective clinical trials, worked on development of a database management program, and begun the process of developing prospective multi-center clinical trials in order to increase the scientific knowledge base and levels of evidence related to the use of the Leksell Gamma Knife.

All consortium research efforts will be directed to the improvement of public health and patient outcomes by increasing the quantity and quality of knowledge related to the treatment of a wide variety of brain and head and neck indications for which stereotactic radiosurgery is an appropriate technology. Results of NAGKC-conducted studies will be published in medical journals and otherwise made publicly available for the use of medical professionals.