 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
Medical Forum / Diseases and Disorders / Prostate Cancer / August 2006CyberKnife(c)
Has anyone heard of this machine? > Has anyone heard of this machine? Nick..It is a precision RT technique, typically used in cases were a single tumor with a precise location exists, e.g. a brain tumor. Since PCa is usually multifocal, irradiation at a single spot is not normally practiced...Best wishes and good health, ron On August 9, NICK inquired: > Has anyone heard of this machine? > Yes, but I don't know much about it. Google will produce 213,000 hits, enough to keep Nick busy for a while ;-) Regards, Steve J NICK asked: >> Has anyone heard of this machine? And Steve replied: > Yes, but I don't know much about it. Google will produce 213,000 hits, > enough to keep Nick busy for a while ;-) Originally for brain tumors, later FDA approved for lung cancer. The CyberKnife facility was installed here June 12. A radiation Oncologist who is board certified by the American Board of Radiology (so his business card says) is trying to get PCa patients to submit to treatments. If one visits the CyberKnife site, about all they'll see is a ton of "breast pounding" and "back patting" about how great this newfangled machine is. On August 9, NICK replied: > Originally for brain tumors, later FDA approved for lung cancer. > [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > "back patting" about how great this newfangled machine is. > FWIW, I understand that they claim that the procedure is "non-invasive." *But* they must implant gold guide markers. That's invasive, in my view. I have no problem with it except that the claim that it's non-invasive is, to be charitable, misleading. If Nick is seeking accuracy, IMRT is purty good. The very latest improvement on IMRT is "IGRT" or Image-Guided Radiation Therapy, also called tomotherapy. The "image" is generated by a CAT scan before each daily session (x weekends & holidays) rather than ultrasound as with IMRT. I've met (and referred two patients to) a rad onc who is very high on IGRT. As well he should be; he bought two of the machines. One patient is delighted. The other just completed the regimen last Friday, so it's too early to know the result. Regards, Steve J > FWIW, I understand that they claim that the procedure is "non-invasive." > *But* they must implant gold guide markers. That's invasive, in my view. > I have no problem with it except that the claim that it's non-invasive > is, to be charitable, misleading. 2001-2005 they claimed "non-invasive" while referring to treatment of brain tumors and lung cancer. None of the 2006 literature -- March 7 is the first mention of prostrate I could find -- uses the term "non-invasive". > Has anyone heard of this machine? Hi, Full disclosure, I am an engineer at the company that builds the CyberKnife... I wanted to point you to: http://www.cksociety.org/ where there is some info on use of the CyberKnife on prostate cancer; probably more useful than the www.accuray.com site which is run by the marketing department (I will probably get phone calls...). Expounding on some points in the other replies you had: * The CyberKnife is not limited to treating at a single location, it is very versatile in its ability to point the radiation beam so it can shoot/paint spherical targets, very irregularly shaped targets, targets wrapped around critical structures and multiple targets in a single treatment. * The system was FDA cleared in 8/01 (terminology, the FDA doesn't *approve* a device like this). The intended use is: "To provide treatment planning and image guided stereotactic radiosurgery and precision radiotheraphy for lesions, tumors and conditions anywhere in the body where radiation treatment is indicated." So doctors can use it for brain tumors, spine, lung, pancreas, bone, prostate, etc. * IMRT is a way of shaping the beam from a conventional linear accelerator to help it spare healthy tissue but it doesn't address the difficulty of locating the tumor so you know where to point. I think most linear accelerator manufacturers have added x-ray imaging systems at this point but, other than tomotheraphy, I believe they are only used for initial alignment of the patient. In the CyberKnife world, we know that patients move during treatments, degrading the accuracy of delivery unless you can compensate by imaging and adjusting during treatment. The movement is, of course, dramatic for sites affected by the breathing cycle, with the best example being the lung. * Doctors are almost always delighted by the equipment they have, after all they have made a huge investment in training, time to gain experience, and dollars to obtain. How the medical industry operates was one of the eye openers for me when I left the aerospace world for the medical device world many years ago... This isn't a slam against any medical folks, just recognition of human nature. Good luck, Eric |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2008 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.