For details of the latest treatments for brain or spine tumours available with CyberKnife® radiosurgery you can visit the manufacturer's web site for patients www.cyberknife.com.
Brain and Spine Cancer
Many tumours in the brain are too difficult or dangerous to operate upon due to their complex shapes and/or proximity to blood vessels or nerves and in these case it is sometimes possible to use radiosurgery instead. Other cases are suitable for surgical intervention but patients may understandably prefer the less or non-invasive option of radiosurgery.
Brain Cancers
Radiosurgery is therefore an attractive and sometimes even the only option and it has many obvious advantages over conventional surgery. One disadvantage however is that the irradiated tissue is not physically removed and natural breakdown can be slow. For large tumours this can present problems, so radiosurgery is not always suitable as a stand-alone treatment.
Many patients in the past have presented with tumours which are both large and dangerously located and they have been denied conventional surgery because the tumour cannot be fully removed and would quickly regrow.
With recent improvements in radiosurgery however some of these patients can now be treated with a two-stage approach: first conventional surgery to reduce the tumour mass but leave the difficult areas undisturbed, then radiosurgery to treat the remainder.
Many patients in the past have presented with tumours which are both large and dangerously located and they have been denied conventional surgery because the tumour cannot be fully removed and would quickly regrow.
With recent improvements in radiosurgery however some of these patients can now be treated with a two-stage approach: first conventional surgery to reduce the tumour mass but leave the difficult areas undisturbed, then radiosurgery to treat the remainder.
Spine Cancer
Whilst the head can be secured relatively easily, if uncomfortably for accurate targeting of tumours, the rest of the body presents more of a problem.
Until recently the only forms of radiosurgery available for cancers of the brain involved securing a metal frame to the skull by means of screws to ensure accurate delivery of radiation doses in beams centred upon the target area. Some of these treatments have a long and successful track record but even then certain areas remained difficult to treat or it was not possible to deliver fractionated treatments over several days, which can be helpful to reduce damage to healthy tissue.
CyberKnife® now uses the skull itself as a marker. It does not need an external metal frame, so the process is truly non-invasive and pain-free.
High precision beams are delivered from a wide variety of angles by a miniature linear accelerator mounted upon a flexible robotic arm, which tracks the tumour continuously. This allows the CyberKnife to compensate for small body movements between doses and ensure that the beams remain centred upon the tumour.
High precision beams are delivered from a wide variety of angles by a miniature linear accelerator mounted upon a flexible robotic arm, which tracks the tumour continuously. This allows the CyberKnife to compensate for small body movements between doses and ensure that the beams remain centred upon the tumour.
By sparing healthy tissue from unnecessary radiation CyberKnife radiosurgery treatments can be reduced down even to a single day in many cases, rather than several weeks as with conventional radiotherapy.
Latest information and treatment enquiries
As the patient breathes in and out, the tumour is continually on the move. This has made radiosurgery either impossible or inaccurate in the past, but now spinal tumours can be treated with a high degree of accuracy by CyberKnife. The software uses the patient's own bone structure to provide markers, in the same way as with brain tumours. The position of the tumour is tracked continuously throughout the treatment and the programmed treatment plan is automatically adjusted before each dose of radiation is delivered.
Treatment enquiries
To enquire about treatment at a choice of CyberKnife centres visit the CyberKnife Patients page.
CyberKnife Radiosurgery Treatments Soft Tissue Tumours Typical Treatment Patients North American Patients
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