The American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) and the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) are partnering to launch and support a national registry for stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) treatments. The partnership was announced recently at the ASTRO Annual Meeting.
The SRS patient registry will define national patterns of care in radiosurgery, with an eye to improving health-care outcomes, supporting informed decision-making, and potentially lowering the cost-of-care for patients. The registry project will gather data from 30 diverse, high-volume sites with data specific to stereotactic radiosurgery during the next 3 years. The registry will log de-identified SRS treatment information of thousands of patients affected by brain metastases, benign brain tumors, and arteriovenous malformations (AVMs).
Jason Sheehan, MD, PhD, FAANS, Harrison Distinguished Professor and Vice-Chair of the Neurological Surgery at the University of Virginia, said “The registry underscores the commitment by AANS and ASTRO to enhancing quality care for our patients. It also provides new opportunities for achieving major advances in the management of patients with brain tumors, vascular malformations, and functional disorders.”
ASTRO Health Policy Council Chair and a Radiation Oncologist at the University of Colorado, Denver, Brian Kavanagh, MD, MPH, added, “Radiosurgery is one of the most important, high-value services we can provide to a wide-range of patients for an assortment of benign and malignant cancers. The registry will give us ’big data’ that we can use to refine our current technical and patient selection guidelines with the nuanced observations that can only be derived from large patient cohorts who are followed prospectively in a registry platform.”
ASTRO and AANS will lead the Scientific Advisory Committee charged with providing strategic oversight for the registry. Major sponsorship for the project has been provided by BrainLAB. Additional sponsors are being sought to support the long-term efforts and expansion of the registry. ■
