CyberKnife

Patients view a mural of a bridge and stream while receiving treatment.

CyberKnife® with Synchrony^TM is one of the most significant advancements in the history of treatment for inoperable tumors. With CyberKnife there is no surgical incision or pain. In many cases, patients do not need to change out of their street clothes. When a treatment session is over, the patient can get up and go back to work. No recovery time is needed.

CyberKnife is used to treat inoperable or surgically difficult tumors.

What is CyberKnife with Synchrony?

CyberKnife treatment is a type of radiation therapy called radiosurgery, or stereotactic radiosurgery, because of its ability to destroy tumors with surgical-like precision.

The CyberKnife Robotic Radiosurgery System coupled with the Synchrony Respiratory Tracking System delivers precise treatment — even to a "moving target" like a lung tumor. An older form of radiosurgery, still in use at some hospitals, is only capable of treating tumors of the brain and spine and requires screwing a head frame into the patient's skull to restrain patient movement. CyberKnife needs no invasive head frame and can treat tumors located anywhere in the body, including the brain and spine.

With CyberKnife, a patient typically completes treatment in one to five sessions. With traditional radiation technologies, treatment may require as many as 40 sessions.

What complex tumors are successfully treated with CyberKnife?

CyberKnife and the Synchrony Respiratory Tracking System are FDA approved for the treatment of tumors (and intravascular conditions) located anywhere in the body. More than 20,000* patients have been treated worldwide. (*2006 data)

Tumors successfully treated include head and brain, neck and spine, and lung, liver, kidney, pancreas, prostate and those at other sites.

As seen on ABC2News, watch how CyberKnife helped one woman with inoperable lung cancer.

Back to Radiation Therapy