JW - bold in para 1 - sense? DB Award for Gamma Knife brain treatment

Dr Thi Thuy Hong Duong of the Australian School of Advanced Medicine at Macquarie University in Sydney has received a coveted Brain Foundation award to research a treatment which will combine a special kind of high-energy, high-focus radiotherapy, called the Gamma Knife, with a medication which will target the internal living of this bundle of blood vessels to make them clot and close down.

“The Gamma Knife is already used for AVMs [arteriovenous malformations],” she says, “but it doesn’t always work. What we know though is that the radiation damages the internal lining of the arteries and provokes a chemical reaction which we think we can use like a magnet for targeted therapy to increase the chances of blocking up the AVM with blood clot,” said Dr Thi Thuy Jong Duong.

“[An AVM] is a dreadful brain abnormality that affects thousands of young, healthy people out of the blue and can kill or seriously disable them,” explains Dr Hong. “Arteriovenous malformations are short circuits between arteries and veins in the brain that people are born with. The AVM grows until they burst, causing a disastrous haemorrhage. The vast majority are so large, fragile or inaccessible that they can’t be operated on.”

“Over 20,000 Australians are affected by brain AVMs and more effective treatments are badly needed,” said Gerald Edmunds, Secretary-General of the Brain Foundation.

“These annual awards are the showcase of the Brain Foundation’s efforts to raise funds and select projects with the greatest potential to add to the knowledge, treatments and techniques of neurology and neurosurgery. This is a very significant area because 45% of the disability and morbidity suffered in Australia is due to disorders, diseases and injuries of the brain and spinal cord,” Gerald Edmunds said.