Cyberknife - Cancer Treatment Centres

Introduction

The world’s first non-invasive whole body radiosurgery system, CyberKnife, was introduced to India for the first time by Apollo Cancer Centres CyberKnife is designed to treat cancers & lesions (previously examined as inoperable or untreatable) anywhere in the body with sub-millimetre accuracy and help the patients live long, healthy and high-quality lives.

An innovation in the treatment of cancer, CyberKnife offers a non-invasive alternative to surgery with a state-of- the-art, real-time image guidance that precisely targets tumours anywhere in the body with pinpoint accuracy. It also delivers intense doses of radiation for a broad range of tumors in the body including the prostate, lung, brain, spine, liver, pancreas and kidney. As CyberKnife removes the need for invasive surgery, it provides the patients with an option of shorter hospital stay and quick recovery.

Features

CyberKnife system is a non-invasive robotic radio-surgery modality
used for treating tumours
anywhere in the body.
Continual image guidance technology and robotic mobility tracking
detects and corrects the
tumour position and patient movement during treatment.
The linear accelerator designed for conventional radiotherapy are
modified by incorporating
improved guiding (stereotactic devices) and methods to improve the
accuracy of treatment.
The CyberKnife combines a miniaturized LINAC mounted on an
industrial robot (with 6 degrees of
freedom) with a system for X-ray tracking system.
The CyberKnife uses multiple fixed beams that target the tumour with 360
degree movement
around the 6-D couch

Indications and Procedures

Indication:

It is used for both intra-cranial as well as extra-cranial tumours.
Meningioma and Acoustic Schwannoma
A-V Malformation
Pituitary Adenoma
Trigeminal neuralgia
Chordoma
Re-irradiation
Brain metastasis

Procedures:

A planning CT and MRI is taken for better visualisation.
For Mobile tumours, fiducials are implanted that help in tracking the tumour motion treatment.

Advantages

It is a high precision technique; therefore higher doses of
radiation can be delivered in each fraction,
with millimetre accuracy.
It can be used to treat both benign and malignant lesions as well as
vascular malformations.
It can be used for functional disorders like trigeminal neuralgia
Being a pain-free, non-invasive type of radiosurgery, CyberKnife
significantly reduces the treatment
time and treats the affected areas with great accuracy with minimal
side effects.
The duration of the treatment is reduced from 5-6 weeks to a maximum
of 5-7 days with one session
per day, lasting about 30-90 minutes.
CyberKnife treatment works with a high degree of precision, with
minimal exposure to the healthy
tissues
CyberKnife can treat any inoperable tumour anywhere in the body with
pinpoint accuracy and is
unmatched when it comes to accuracy.