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Raymond N. Kjellberg, MD
Massachusetts General Hospital Harvard University Medical School Boston

JAMA. 1988;260(17):2505.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor. —

In the May 6 letters, the authors of "The Gamma Knife" make some inappropriate and misleading comparisons with proton-beam therapy.¹

X-ray and gamma radiation are both electromagnetic radiation and thus are different physical species from protons and other heavy particles with mass and electric charge. X-ray has been in use since the turn of the century and was used in treatment of arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) since the late 1920s. A good number of reports during the years attest that it is of no or limited effectiveness in treating AVMs. Gamma radiation differs from x-ray only in the range of its wave length and frequency. Gamma radiation from cobalt 60 began to be used in the mid-1950s and has been used with decreasing frequency since the early 1970s. On the other hand, we have been using the proton beam increasingly since the early 1960s.

The Bragg . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Footnotes
Edited by Drummond Rennie, MD, Deputy Editor (West); Sharon Iverson, Assistant Editor.

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