About CyberKnife
No incisions, no pain
Parkview is home to the region’s only CyberKnife®, a precise and painless outpatient treatment that effectively targets tumors and dramatically reduces procedure time for some patients. CyberKnife delivers focused beams of radiation to the tumor from numerous angles with a high degree of accuracy, preserving the healthy tissue surround the tumor.
5 vs. 40
Typically, only five or fewer CyberKnife treatments are needed compared to as many as 40 conventional radiation treatments. With virtually no recovery period and no side effects, CyberKnife is a powerful weapon in the fight against cancer.
Watch Video
Donna Lucas, acoustic neuroma survivor, chose CyberKnife after learning she had a rare brain tumor. See why Donna chose this painless technology that she says “gives you zero downtown from work, zero recovery time, and less chance of side effects.”
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Benefits of CyberKnife treatment
Since 2006, more than 900 patients have been treated with Parkview’s CyberKnife, experiencing significant benefits that improved their quality of life during and after treatment. CyberKnife can:
Treat tumors that were previously considered inoperable or untreatable
Treat patients in just a few sessions on an outpatient basis – sometimes in as little as an hour, so patients can go home or return to work the same day
Treat tumors without incisions, pain or anesthesia
Reduce the risk of complications, infections and blood loss
Tumors/conditions treated
Many types of tumors or lesions can be treated. In addition, other conditions throughout the body can be treated with CyberKnife. Among these are:
Cancers in the brain, liver, lung, pancreas, prostate, kidney, head and neck, spine and other soft-tissue sites
Certain benign tumors
Malformations of blood vessels within the brain or spine
Symptomatic functional disorders of the neurological system
How CyberKnife works
Conventional radiation therapy administers a broad beam of radiation from a limited number of directions and at lower doses passing through normal tissues. CyberKnife’s more intense, tightly focused beams of high-dose X-ray/photon energy are delivered from many points around the body, all concentrating on the tumor, so damage to the surrounding tissue is minimized. Usually only one to five treatments are needed.
While certain soft-tissue applications do require a small incision in order to place markers for tracking purposes, most procedures using the CyberKnife are non-invasive. Unlike some other radiosurgery systems, which require painful head frames to stabilize the patient, CyberKnife is able to compensate for patient movement during treatment, so procedures are more comfortable and can be handled on an outpatient basis.
During your outpatient treatments
Before your course of treatment with CyberKnife, your team of physicians, nurses, radiology staff and other healthcare professionals will create a treatment plan based on diagnostic testing and your needs.
The number of treatments varies from one person to another, depending on tumor size, location and shape. Treatments last, on average, from 45 to 90 minutes.
During your outpatient visits, you will simply lie quietly on a special table as the CyberKnife arm moves around you to deliver your treatment, guided by your physician and a radiation technologist. You may wear street clothes, and if you like, you may bring music from home to listen to while you relax.
For more information on CyberKnife, call the Parkview Comprehensive Cancer Center’s CyberKnife coordinator at (260) 266-9165.
CyberKnife® is a registered trademark of Accuray, Inc.