Cyberknife Radiosurgery

In the past, radiation treatment consisted of single, large doses of radiation that damaged the DNA within the cancer cells of a tumor, thereby killing those cells. However, those large doses of radiation also traveled through the surrounding healthy tissue, exposing the normal cells to a significant amount of radiation, and killing them as well. The CyberKnife Stereotactic Radiosurgery System uses computer-assisted, non-surgical technology to transmit small beams of radiation from several different angles into a tumor thereby minimizing the exposure of surrounding healthy tissue. Based on CT scan data of a tumor, and the skeletal structure of the body as a reference frame, a high speed computer-controlled robotic arm is used to track patient and tumor positions during treatment. Instead of one large dose of radiation, the CyberKnife’s robotic arm can maneuver and emit single, small-dose radiation beams that can enter the body from up to 1200 different angles. The goal is to maximize tumor exposure by hitting the tumor with greater amounts of small-dose beams. All the while, the surrounding healthy tissue remains unaltered, because radiation beams that travel through the healthy tissue consist of such a small dose of radiation. The CyberKnife Stereotactic Radiosurgery System is an entirely new approach to radiosurgery that eliminates the need for a rigid stereotactic frame, enables painless treatment of tumor sites anywhere in the body, and can still be done on an outpatient basis.