What is CyberKnife®?
Whilst it is a major breakthrough for a wide range of conditions, media headlines of 'miracle cures' of celebrities can over-simplify and raise unreaslistic hopes. In fact CyberKnife is not a single fixed procedure but an operational tool. Each surgeon brings his own unique experience to it so different centres have their own approaches and CyberKnife may form only part of a wider treatment.
CyberKnife radiosurgery is a precise, painless, non-invasive radiation treatment that can be an alternative to open surgery or conventional radiotherapy in certain cases. It uses very fine, high power radiation beams so there is no incision, no blood and no pain.
How cases are assessed
CyberKnife treatments
Choose a CyberKnife centre
In stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), a high power radiation beam is projected onto the target with much greater accuracy. By cross-firing from many different angles the exposure of adjacent healthy tissue is minimised and the number of treatments can be greatly reduced.
Radiosurgery does not remove the tumour but destroys tumour cells or stops growth of active tissue. The main forms of radiosurgery available today are Linac (linear accelerator), GammaKnife® and CyberKnife, of which CyberKnife is the most recent and the most flexible.
Radiosurgery does not remove the tumour but destroys tumour cells or stops growth of active tissue. The main forms of radiosurgery available today are Linac (linear accelerator), GammaKnife® and CyberKnife, of which CyberKnife is the most recent and the most flexible.
Radiosurgery v Radiotherapy
Radiosurgery differs from conventional radiotherapy in several important respects.
Radiotherapy depends primarily on tumour cells having greater sensitivity to radiation than normal tissue. To protect normal tissue as far as possible the treatment is fractionated over many sessions, usually over a period of several weeks.
Radiotherapy depends primarily on tumour cells having greater sensitivity to radiation than normal tissue. To protect normal tissue as far as possible the treatment is fractionated over many sessions, usually over a period of several weeks.
Each individual beam is insufficient to cause harm, but the convergence of all the beams means that the target receives a very high dose of radiation whilst sparing nearby normal tissue much more effectively than radiotherapy can.
CyberKnife radiosurgery is so precise that radiation beams can be sculpted to small, complex-shaped tumours near critical structures, such as hearing and vision nerves, where surgeons will not conduct open surgery.
It is used for certain forms of cancer and conditions such as acoustic neuroma, trigeminal neuralgia and AVMs (arteriovenous malformations) where high precision is required to avoid damage to adjacent nerves and blood vessels.
CyberKnife uses a miniature linear accelerator mounted upon a highly flexible, robotically controlled arm to deliver fine beams of radiation. These are fired from many different angles so as to focus precisely on the tumour, AVM or other target.
The development of radiosurgery How CyberKnife works The advantages of CyberKnife Clinical acceptance
Firstly, there is no knife!
MHL international web sites
© 2006-2012 Medilux Healthcare Ltd
All rights reserved
All rights reserved
Web sites in 30 countries
Click map for details
MHL CyberKnife Service
cyberknifeservice.com
cyberknifeservice.com