Doctors at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and James Cancer Hospital are using functional radiosurgery to treat patients. This is a high-tech method, also called stereotactic radiosurgery, in which extremely precise radiation beams are used to treat a wide range of neurological conditions in a less invasive and more precise way. In this episode, Evan Thomas, MD, a James radiation oncology specialist, and Brian Dalm, MD, a Wexner neurosurgeon explain how they collaborate to reduce the pain of their patients, including many cancer patients, and improve their quality of life. Radiosurgery can be used to target and treat brain tumors. In recent years, improved imaging and a better understanding of the neural networks and pathways in the brain and throughout the body have increased the ways in which this technique is used. Radiosurgery can treat cancerous tumors without traditional surgery that includes an incision. It can also be used to treat tremors and long-term pain by detecting and targeting abnormalities in the neural networks in the body and brain. This origin of the pain can be located anywhere in the body. “We can locate the sensory relay area for the pain in the brain and that can be the target to interrupt the pain network,” Dalm said. “One of the most rewarding things in medicine is knowing you made a difference for a patient,” Thomas said. It can be someone with a tremor so severe “that it prevented them from feeding themselves for years and now they can, or someone with pain so severe they couldn’t pick up their grandchild and now they can.”