Ask a physician if CyberKnife treatment is right for you
You deserve the best possible treatment for your spine tumor. Find a physician in your area offering the CyberKnife System — and find out if CyberKnife treatment is right for you.
The spinal cord relays messages from the brain to different parts of your body, allowing your organs to function and enabling you to control your movements, such as walking. That’s why when it comes to treating tumors in or near the complex and delicate tissues, and structures, of the spine, precision matters. The CyberKnife® System is a non-invasive, non-surgical, pain-free treatment option for treating cancers and/or metastases at any point on the spine — including complicated neurosurgical cases.
The CyberKnife System is the first and only radiotherapy device that brings true robotic precision and the ability to track, detect and adapt for tumor motion in real-time, to the treatment of cancer. The system treats spine lesions with a procedure called stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) in a single or just a few sessions, delivering high doses of precisely targeted radiation to destroy the tumors, while minimizing radiation exposure to nearby healthy tissues surrounding the tumor. The CyberKnife Systems delivers effective tumor control and may provide significant pain relief following treatment of spine tumors.1 The unrivaled, sub-millimeter accuracy of CyberKnife SRS enables patients who are ineligible for surgery, or whose tumors cannot be completely removed surgically, to receive treatment.
References:
1 Degen JW, Gagnon GJ, Voyadzis JM, McRae DA, Lunsden M, Dieterich S, et al. CyberKnife stereotactic radiosurgical treatment of spinal tumors for pain control and quality of life. J Neurosurg Spine 2005;2(5):540-9.
You deserve the best possible treatment for your spine tumor. Find a physician in your area offering the CyberKnife System — and find out if CyberKnife treatment is right for you.
The advanced CyberKnife treatment technology is not new; the system has more than two decades of clinical evidence and has been used to treat thousands of patients with tumors within, near and adjacent to the spine. Single or multiple fraction SRS with the CyberKnife System are safe and effective for primary and metastatic spine lesions with low rates of toxicity.1, 2, 3 Treatment with the system has also been shown to be effective for intramedullary and intradural lesions as well and arteriovenous malformations of the spine.1, 2, 3, 4, 5
References:
1 Gerszten P.C. et al. Radiosurgery for spinal metastases: clinical experience in 500 cases from a single institution. Spine. 2007; 32: 193-199
2 Gagnon GJ, Nasr NM, Liao JJ, et al. Treatment of spinal tumors using cyberknife fractionated stereotactic radiosurgery: pain and quality-of-life assessment after treatment in 200 patients. Neurosurgery 2009;64:297-306; discussion 306-297.
3 Heron D.E. et al. J. Neurosurg Spine. 2012; 17: 11-18 https://doi.org/10.3171/2012.4.SPINE11902.
4 Sinclair J, Chang SD, Gibbs IC, et al. Multisession CyberKnife radiosurgery for intramedullary spinal cord arteriovenous malformations. Neurosurgery. 2006;58:1081–1089; discussion 1081-1089.
5 Kalani MA, Choudhri O, Gibbs IC, et al. Stereotactic radiosurgery for intramedullary spinal arteriovenous malformations. J. Clin. Neurosci. Off. J. Neurosurg. Soc. Australas. 2016;29:162–167.
6 Wang Q, Song Y, Zhuang H, et al. Robotic stereotactic irradiation and reirradiation for spinal metastases: safety and efficacy assessment. Chin Med J (Engl) 2014;127:232-238.
Spinal lesions, despite being relatively rigid, can move during the treatment session even when immobilized. Unlike any other radiation treatment, the CyberKnife System automatically synchronizes the radiation beam with tumor movement in real-time throughout treatment to maintain sub-millimeter precision. This helps to ensure the radiation dose is delivered to the target — maximizing treatment effectiveness while minimizing radiation exposure to the spinal cord.
The CyberKnife System’s advanced real-time motion synchronization capability uses the bones of the spine to track the complex motion of individual spine segments, eliminating the need for an outpatient procedure to implant fiducials. Fiducials are markers that show on x-ray to help radiation therapy devices pinpoint the tumor’s exact location and guide the delivery of radiation. And unlike other radiotherapy options, the CyberKnife System does not require uncomfortable patient restraints or breath-hold techniques. You can relax and breathe normally, with full confidence in the CyberKnife System’s ability to deliver radiation with the high level of precision required for radiosurgery — key to minimizing radiation exposure to the spinal cord, healthy tissue and nearby organs.
The CyberKnife System may be an effective alternative to surgery for patients diagnosed with primary or metastatic spinal tumors. It may also, in some situations, be used as a treatment for intramedullary arteriovenous malformations. Despite its name, CyberKnife treatment is not a surgical procedure. In fact, there is no cutting involved. This makes the CyberKnife System an excellent treatment option when more invasive techniques are deemed inappropriate or too risky — or for patients seeking to avoid surgical intervention.
Because it can precisely target tumors, the CyberKnife System may provide a safe radiation treatment option even for some patients previously treated with conventional radiation therapy. CyberKnife treatment may also be performed in addition to surgery and in medically untreatable patients.
The precision of the CyberKnife System enables a maximum dose of radiation to be delivered to the target — while helping to minimize radiation exposure to the spinal cord and surrounding healthy tissues. The result is highly effective treatment that eliminates many of the inconveniences of surgical intervention and conventional radiotherapy — and significantly reduces the risk of side effects, helping to protect quality of life both during and after treatment. In fact, the hypofractionated, high-dose radiosurgery delivered by the CyberKnife System has emerged as an important alternative to conventional treatments, rapidly delivering proven tumor control, as well as reliable pain relief in the treatment of spine cancers1.
CyberKnife treatment is an outpatient procedure that does not require incisions or general anesthesia. Most patients will not require hospitalization or a long recovery period.
CyberKnife treatment is completed in as little as 1-5 sessions in 1-2 weeks, compared to 10-15 sessions over 2-3 weeks with conventional radiation therapy.
References:
1 Degen JW, Gagnon GJ, Voyadzis JM, McRae DA, Lunsden M, Dieterich S, et al. CyberKnife stereotactic radiosurgical treatment of spinal tumors for pain control and quality of life. J Neurosurg Spine 2005;2(5):540-9.
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