CyberKnife®, a robotic radiosurgery treatment, was developed in the 1990’s and has since been used to treat over 100,000 patients. The ‘surgery’ is in fact an alternative form of radiotherapy involving hundreds of pencil thin beams of radiation which are moved around the body by a robotic arm allowing for highly precise targeting of tumours.
The following conditions are suitable for treatment with the CyberKnife® radiosurgery technique:
- Low grade Astrocytomas (grade 2/3)
- Meningiomas (up to 5cm in size)
- Brain metastases (usually one – three)
- Pituitary tumours
- Trigeminal neuralgia
- Spinal metastasis (usually solitary)
- Primary spinal tumours
- Stage 1 non small cell lung cancer
- Locally advanced pancreatic cancer
- Primary liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma)
- Lung metastases
- Liver metastases
- Lymph node metastases
- Early Prostate Cancer
- Early Kidney Cancer
- Recurrent Head and Neck Cancer
Due to its high concentration of radiation CyberKnife® cannot be used to treat all tumours or cancers, particularly those that are larger or have spread to multiple sites. The following are unable to be treated with CyberKnife®:
- Glioblastoma (grade 4 astrocytoma)
- Large meningiomas (of over 5cm in diameter)
- Multiple brain metastases (usually greater than three)
- Tumours (more than 8cm in diameter)
- Lung Cancer stages 2/3
- Advanced or high risk Prostate Cancer
- Oesophageal Cancer
For information about arranging a referral at the CyberKnife® Centre London please click here.
