CyberKnife is known as the world’s first and only robotic radio surgery system to cure any type of cancer in the entire body with highly sensitive precision, within a millimeter. With this system, cancerous regions in the brain or in the body can be treated with high doses by using radiation beams focally. Moreover, normal tissues can be maximally protected against radiation side effects.
What is CyberKnife?
The treatment device, using computer-controlled robot technology, turns around the patient as if it is dancing and performs the treatment by applying radiation from hundreds of angles. CyberKnife is composed of subsystems that host many advanced high technologies. CyberKnife determines the place of the tumor under the guidance of its imaging system. It is a highly precise computer-controlled robot system and a modern robotic patient positioning system. All these systems facilitate the treatment of the tumor with high precision. CyberKnife is basically an advanced linear accelerator placed on robots, used in the industry sector. By using radiation beams focally, it is able to treat cancerous areas in the brain or in the body, especially those that are hard to reach with high doses. It is also a Stereotactic Radiosurgery (SRS) device which provides maximum protection for normal tissues. SRS - which can be explained as the treatment of a specific target by means of coordinates, refers to the complete destruction of the tumor in one single session through high doses of radiation after 3-D coordinates of the target had been determined. When this therapy is applied in more than one session (generally 3 to 5 sessions), it is named Stereotactic Radiotherapy (SRT).
Which types of cancer is CyberKnife used for ?
• Brain tumors
• Lung cancers
• Lung and liver cancers
• Various tumors
• Reoccurring tumors in regions that are already radiated
What are the advantages of CyberKnife?
• With CyberKnife, cancer patients attain a new and a highly precise treatment method. This is an SRS/SRT method ideal for inoperable , small and hard to reach lesions.
• CyberKnife is an alternative method to surgery. It does not require surgical operation.
• It provides patients with an alternative method for the treatment of tumors which require a complicated operation or are inoperable.
• It minimizes the damage to healthy tissues around the tumor by performing the treatment with high precision to an accuracy of within one millimeter.
• It offers a short treatment option with only 1-5 sessions.
• Treatment is performed in real time monitoring of the tumor and patient movements with the help of the guidance system and computer controlled robot technology. Thus, spontaneous changes occurring during therapy may be identified and fixed.
• CyberKnife performs precise fixing and applies radiation accordingly by monitoring patients’ respiration and tumor movements taking place accordingly.
• It may treat multiple tumors simultaneously.
• It is a painless therapy. No anesthesia is required for the therapy and patients feel nothing during the treatment.
• During treatment, water-soluble plastic masks and special beds are used instead of the methods used to immobilize the head or the body of the patient.
• Patients do not need to be hospitalized for the CyberKnife therapy. They may return back to their normal lives and their jobs right after the therapy.
• Treatment planning is performed by interdisciplinary teamwork.
Good News
It is used in brain tumors and other types of cancer in the body.
Besides brain tumors, CyberKnife is also used in the treatment of benign and malign tumors in all parts of the body. One session, or up to 5 sessions can be applied depending on the patient. In one-session therapies, it is applied as stereotactic radiosurgery (radiation therapy with high doses); in therapies with more than one session, it is applied as stereotactic radiotherapy. The term “radiosurgery” is used is because this method has replaced many operations made in the past and because it is a surgical application performed without scalpel and consequently, without bleeding.
