Help NIH Prevent Closing an Important Epilepsy Study

Epilepsy surgery can be an effective therapy for some people whose seizures cannot be controlled by anticonvulsant medications. A new clinical trial is testing whether a minimally-invasive approach called radiosurgery is as effective as standard open surgery at reducing or eliminating seizures in patients with medically refractory partial epilepsy. Radiosurgery is a radiation procedure already in use to treat tumors and other abnormalities of the brain.

The Gamma Knife® radiosurgery instrument used in this study uses tightly focused beams of radiation to target the seizure focus, rather than removing it with open surgery. The ROSE Trial (Radiosurgery or Open Surgery for Epilepsy), sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and Elekta, the company that manufactures the Gamma Knife, is designed to compare the two different surgical procedures on outcomes including seizure frequency, language impairment (sometimes caused by surgery), cost of the procedures, and effects on quality of life.

NIH might have to close the study before it is complete if patient enrollment does not increase within the next few months. The ROSE Trial is being conducted in major epilepsy centers across the U.S. and Canada. For more information about this trial and to locate an enrolling center near you please visit clinicaltrials.gov using this link http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00860145?term=radiosurgery+and+epilepsy&rank=1 or visit the ROSE study website at http://epilepsysurgery-rosetrial.com/