The CyberKnife System is the only radiation delivery system that features a linear accelerator (linac) directly mounted on a robot to deliver the high-energy x-rays or photons used in radiation therapy.
Full Answer
How does the CyberKnife treatment delivery system work?
Treatments on the CyberKnife Treatment Delivery System are based on the patient positioning table accurately bringing the patient to the imaging field of view. Live X-ray images are then digitized and compared with images synthesized from the patient’s treatment plan.
What is a CyberKnife?
The CyberKnife — one of the most advanced forms of radiosurgery — is a painless, non-invasive treatment that delivers high doses of precisely targeted radiation to destroy tumors or lesions within the body. It uses a robotic arm to deliver highly focused beams of radiation.
How many types of CyberKnife systems are there?
Since the original design, Accuray Incorporated released seven CyberKnife System models over the years: the CyberKnife G3 System in 2005, the CyberKnife G4 System in 2007, the CyberKnife VSI System in 2009, the CyberKnife M6 System in 2012, and the CyberKnife S7 System in 2020.
Do I need to be present during CyberKnife?
A qualified clinician then uses the CyberKnife software to generate a treatment plan to provide the desired radiation dose to the identified tumor location without damaging surrounding healthy tissue. You do not need to be present during this step in the process. Wear loose-fitting, comfortable clothes to the procedure.
What is CyberKnife and how does it work?
CyberKnife uses a high-energy X-ray machine on a robotic arm to precisely deliver radiation beams that destroy tumor cells and stop tumor growth while avoiding damage to healthy tissue. The treatment process is the same for each CyberKnife patient.
What is CyberKnife used to treat?
CyberKnife is approved for treating a variety of cancers, including brain tumors, breast, liver, lung, pancreatic and prostate cancers.
How does CyberKnife use radiation to destroy tumors?
A small linear accelerator (high energy X-ray source) located on the CyberKnife's robotic arm delivers concentrated beams of radiation to the tumor from multiple positions and angles that are selected by the computer to minimize the damage to surrounding tissues.
What does CyberKnife do to a tumor?
Instead of delivering radiation to all brain tissues, CyberKnife radiosurgery targets the tumor(s) with sub-millimeter precision, protecting healthy brain tissues and reducing the risk of common cognitive side effects of whole-brain radiation.
What is the CyberKnife made of?
The CyberKnife consists of a lightweight linear accelerator mounted on a robotic arm. Near real-time images allow for patient movement tracking within 1mm spatial accuracy.
What type of radiation therapy is CyberKnife?
CyberKnife is used in a type of radiation therapy called stereotactic radiosurgery (also known as stereotactic radiotherapy). This treatment destroys tumors with extremely precise, very intense doses of radiation while minimizing damage to healthy tissue, offering accuracy akin to the sharpness of a surgeon's scalpel.
What sensors does CyberKnife have?
The CyberKnife has X-ray cameras that monitor the position of the tumour and sensors that monitor the patient's breathing. This enables the robot to reposition the radiotherapy beam during treatment in order to minimise damage to healthy tissue.
What is the difference between proton therapy and CyberKnife?
CyberKnife is the most advanced treatment available, using image-guided robotics to destroy prostate cancer while preserving the surrounding tissue. Proton Therapy is a type of particle therapy in which high-energy proton beams are delivered to tumors by a cyclotron.
How successful is CyberKnife treatment?
As a primary treatment Cyberknife can achieve a local control of nearly 90% in patients with a median follow up of 18 months. Radicular pain has been relieved in 25–85% of patients and neurological deficits improved to a lesser degree.
What impact does the CyberKnife have?
This ability to precisely target the delivery of radiation provides a number of important benefits: More radiation to the target: CyberKnife enables higher-dose radiation to the target region for faster, more effective treatment than with standard radiation therapy.
How many treatments is CyberKnife?
CyberKnife treatments are typically performed in 1 to 5 sessions. The CyberKnife System has more than two decades of clinical proof and has helped thousands of cancer patients.
How does radiation work on tumors?
Radiation works by making small breaks in the DNA inside cells. These breaks keep cancer cells from growing and dividing and cause them to die. Nearby normal cells can also be affected by radiation, but most recover and go back to working the way they should.
What is a cyberknife?
The CyberKnife System consists of three key components: A lightweight linear accelerator produces beams of high-energy radiation that can destroy cancer cells. The robotic arm moves the linear accelerator to a wide variety of positions, allowing treatment from nearly any angle. Two ceiling-mounted cameras take frequent pictures ...
What tumors are treated with Cyberknife?
Extracranial tumors that have been treated by the CyberKnife System include tumors of the spine, lung, prostate, liver, and pancreas. Although this list is by no means exhaustive, CyberKnife is being used to treat:
Can you breathe with synchrony?
With the Synchrony Respiratory Tracking System, patients can breathe normally throughout their treatment without breath-holding or gating techniques, enabling clinicians to continuously track, detect and correct for tumor and patient movement throughout the treatment.
Can Cyberknife treat spinal tumors?
With the CyberKnife System’s revolutionary Xsight Spine Tracking System, it is now possible to treat tumors in or near spinal structures without implanting radiographic markers or fiducials.
Who invented the Cyberknife?
The system was invented by John R. Adler, a Stanford University professor of neurosurgery and radiation oncology, and Peter and Russell Schonberg of Schonberg Research Corporation. It was a development of the first 3D irradiation treatment realized with a linear accelerator producing 4 MeV X rays at that time still used only on plar dimensions as a CAT, by the physicist Renzo Carlo Avanzo in the hospital of Vicenza (Italy). The Cyberknife was the first dedicated linac (linear accelerator) increasing precision and decreasing the time of the treatment. The first system was installed at Stanford University in 1991 and was cleared by the FDA for clinical investigation in 1994. After years of clinical investigation the FDA cleared the system for the treatment of intracranial tumors in 1999 and for the treatment of tumors anywhere in the body in 2001. Since the original design, Accuray Incorporated released seven CyberKnife System models over the years: the CyberKnife G3 System in 2005, the CyberKnife G4 System in 2007, the CyberKnife VSI System in 2009, the CyberKnife M6 System in 2012, and the CyberKnife S7 System in 2020.
What is a kV imaging system?
The image guidance system acquires stereoscopic kV images during treatment , tracks tumor motion, and guide the robotic manipulator to precisely and accurately align the treatment beam to the moving tumor. The system is designed for stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) and stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT). The system is also used for select 3D conformal radiotherapy (3D-CRT) and intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT).
Maria's Story
I was able to undergo my CyberKnife treatments during my lunch hour and would then head right back to work. I was amazed that I didn’t feel a thing. It was so convenient, and I felt great throughout the entire process.
Florence's Story
In total, I had 5 sessions of one hour each. Shortly after the last session, the doctor noted a reduction in the tumor. The first session was a little bit difficult because I was stressed, but I quickly adjusted, and after a few sessions I wasn’t afraid anymore.
Charles's Story
I had never had radiation, so I didn’t know what to expect. The treatment was amazing. It’s like an X-ray; you feel nothing. I had no impotency, no urination problems, no burns, no problems whatsoever.
Maria's Story
I was able to undergo my CyberKnife treatments during my lunch hour and would then head right back to work. I was amazed that I didn’t feel a thing. It was so convenient, and I felt great throughout the entire process.
Florence's Story
In total, I had 5 sessions of one hour each. Shortly after the last session, the doctor noted a reduction in the tumor. The first session was a little bit difficult because I was stressed, but I quickly adjusted, and after a few sessions I wasn’t afraid anymore.
Charles's Story
I had never had radiation, so I didn’t know what to expect. The treatment was amazing. It’s like an X-ray; you feel nothing. I had no impotency, no urination problems, no burns, no problems whatsoever.
Maria's Story
I was able to undergo my CyberKnife treatments during my lunch hour and would then head right back to work. I was amazed that I didn’t feel a thing. It was so convenient, and I felt great throughout the entire process.
What is a cyberknife?
The CyberKnife references the position of the treatment target to internal radiographic features such as the skull, bony landmarks or implanted fiducials rather than a frame. The CyberKnife uses real-time x-rays to establish the position of the lesion during treatment and then dynamically brings the radiation beam into alignment with ...
Is the Cyberknife FDA approved?
The Cyberknife remains the only robotic radiosurgery system that is FDA-approved to treat any part of the body with radiosurgery. With the Synchrony, the Cyberknife remains the only system that has the ability to track a moving tumor while the patient is breathing.
How does Cyberknife work?
The CyberKnife radiosurgery system (Fig. 16-6) consists of a lightweight 6-MV linear accelerator mounted on a computer-controlled robotic arm . The robot receives information regarding target location via an x-ray based imaging feedback system . This system consists of two orthogonally aligned x-ray cameras that acquire radiographs of targeting landmarks during treatment. The x-ray cameras are at fixed positions within the treatment room thereby providing a stationary frame of reference for spinal localization. Once the images are referenced within the imaging system's coordinate frame, the position of the lesion is known. Targeting is based on the assumption of a fixed relationship between the lesion and the spine. The radiographs acquired by the real-time imaging system are compared to digitally reconstructed radiographs (DRRs) derived from computed tomography (CT) scans obtained during pretreatment planning ( Fig. 16-7 ). The CyberKnife software accounts for both translation and rotation of the patient's anatomy by changing the position of the DRR until an exact match of the x-ray image and DRR is achieved. 12 This algorithm eliminates the need to fix the orientation of the patient during treatment. Once the location of the spine is determined, the coordinates are relayed to the robotic arm, which controls the targeting of the linear accelerator (LINAC). This concept enables the system to detect and adjust to changes in target position in less than 1 second with an accuracy approaching ±0.5 mm. 13,14
What is a cyberknife?
The Cyberknife is an image-guided, frameless robotic stereotactic radiosurgery system. It has three main differences from conventional frame-based radiosurgery. (1) It references the position of the treatment site to internal radiographic features, such as skeletal anatomy, rather than to a frame.
What is CK treatment?
CK has a fully integrated treatment planning platform (Multiplan), which enables performance of image fusion, structure segmentation, dose and treatment efficiency optimization, dose calculation, and plan evaluation. A typical CK plan consists of hundreds of noncoplanar, non-isocentric pencil beams directed to the edge of the target. Dose optimization is achieved by the inverse planning method using three possible optimization algorithms: simplex, iterative, and sequential. Each of these algorithms starts by generating 1000–6000 candidate beams for the user-selected beam apertures, and then adjusts the weight of each beam according to the dosimetric and MU goals specified by the user. After a plan of desirable quality is obtained, beam reduction, time reduction, and node reduction algorithms can be used to find the best compromise between plan quality and delivery efficiency. A detailed description of these algorithms can be found in reference ( Kilby et al., 2010 ).
How long does a cyberknife treatment last?
Treatments are performed on an outpatient basis, with each treatment lasting between 30 to 90 minutes.
What is a gamma knife used for?
At UCSF, the Gamma Knife is used primarily to treat small benign or malignant brain tumors, epilepsy, trigeminal neuralgia or abnormal blood vessel formations located in the brain. UCSF Health medical specialists have reviewed this information.
Is Cyberknife radiation therapy?
In many cases, patients treated with the CyberKnife today would have previously been considered untreatable with surgery or conventional radiation therapy. Radiosurgery minimizes radiation exposure ...
Fiducial Placement
If you are undergoing CyberKnife treatment for a spinal or body (non-head) lesion, you may require a short outpatient procedure to implant several small metal markers (fiducials) near the tumor to enable the CyberKnife system to track tumor position throughout treatment. Lesions in the head do not require this step.
Making a Mask or Body Mold
A custom soft mask (for head/neck treatments) or body mold is formed and used to help minimize movement during the treatment and ensure your comfort. The process is simple and painless.
Imaging
You will receive a CT scan in order to pinpoint the exact location of the tumor. The CT data is then downloaded to the CyberKnife treatment-planning computer where physicians will use advanced software to customize the number, intensity, and direction of radiation beams the robot will send to the target.
Arriving
Wear comfortable clothing and no jewelry. Try to relax, knowing this will be a painless procedure. Feel free to bring a list of questions to ask the CyberKnife team. The team is there to ensure your comfort and safety.
Positioning
You will be asked to lie on the treatment table and be fitted with the custom mask or body mold made earlier during the set-up process. Generally, no sedation or anesthesia is required because the treatment is painless.
Painless Treatment
During treatment, you will need to lie still. You will be awake throughout the entire procedure, which typically lasts 30-90 minutes depending on the complexity of your tumor. The image-guidance system periodically takes x-ray images and compares them to data from the CT scan to ensure the radiation is targeted accurately to the tumor.
Completion
If you are undergoing single-session radiosurgery treatment, your treatment is complete, and you can usually leave the facility and resume normal activity immediately.
How long does a cyber knife procedure last?
Anesthesia is not required, as the procedure is painless and noninvasive. Your treatment generally lasts between 30 and 90 minutes.
How to treat a syringe?
On your treatment day: 1 Wear loose-fitting, comfortable clothes to the procedure. Most patients do not need to wear a hospital gown. 2 Before treatment, eat regularly and continue your usual activities. 3 Take all regularly prescribed medications before the treatment. 4 Please do not wear any jewelry to your treatment; four hours prior to treatment, please do not use any moisturizers, lotions, creams, powders, or deodorant on the area to be treated. 5 Bring a family member or friend with you on treatment day. He or she can wait in the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center’s Radiation Oncology waiting area while you are receiving your treatment.
What to wear to a syringe procedure?
Wear loose-fitting, comfortable clothes to the procedure. Most patients do not need to wear a hospital gown. Before treatment, eat regularly and continue your usual activities. Take all regularly prescribed medications before the treatment.
Does Cyberknife cause fatigue?
The most common side effect is fatigue. Most of the time, patients are able to go back to their usual activities but will need someone to drive them home immediately after treatment. Members of our CyberKnife team can help you to arrange alternate transportation plans if needed.