CyberKnife® Radiosurgery
Everyone is unique. So is every tumor. Tumors can be hard to reach and treat. However, CyberKnife® offers unsurpassed accuracy and the ability to adjust to tumor size and location anywhere in the body, offering new hope for patients.
MercyOne Richard Deming Cancer Center offers Iowa’s only flexible stereotactic radiosurgery system (SRS). CyberKnife® is the only SRS system that utilizes robotic technology combined with image-guidance to administer precision radiation treatments to previously inoperable tumors without the need for rigid patient restraints or undue patient discomfort. The CyberKnife® procedure is performed using a multi-disciplinary team, which may include a radiation oncologist, surgeon or neurosurgeon, medical physicist, radiation therapist and a registered nurse.
The CyberKnife® delivers radiation to difficult-to-target sections of the body including the brain, spine, prostate, liver, lungs, head, neck and other areas that traditional methods or systems, such as radiation therapy or the gamma knife, cannot reach. This non-invasive method requires no anesthesia and does not present the same risks as traditional surgery. The CyberKnife® procedure provides hope for patients who may have received the maximum allowable dose of radiation or have been told their condition is untreatable.
What is CyberKnife?
CyberKnife® is unique in that it uses a linear accelerator mounted to a flexible jointed robotic arm to provide up to 1,200 different angles for physicians to reach a variety of tumors both benign and malignant. Surgeons synchronize CyberKnife® with patient movements, including breathing, to allow pinpoint radiation treatment even on moving tumors. The extreme accuracy of the CyberKnife® is unsurpassed, lending it the ability to deliver high precision radiation to the tumor while avoiding the healthy tissue surrounding the tumor.
“Radiosurgery is by definition predicated on accuracy. The CyberKnife® is capable of sub-millimeter accuracy. Better accuracy means a lower dose of radiation to nearby healthy tissue, and this means fewer side-effects for the patient,” said Richard Deming, M.D., Medical Director at the MercyOne Richard Deming Cancer Center.
The Procedure
The CyberKnife® System uses real-time image guidance and a robot to deliver radiation from thousands of beam angles, setting a new standard for delivery precision anywhere in the body. This enables stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) and stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) treatments for the full range of tumors.
The average treatment session takes 30 minutes or less depending on the condition being treated, location, and the number of lesions/tumors targeted. Anesthesia is not necessary for this procedure as it is non-invasive.
