Latest Research Finds CyberKnife Treatment Improves Prostate Cancer Patient Outcomes Safely Reducing Treatment Time From Two Months to Two Weeks
The study results were published in the Lancet Oncology, a renowned, high peer-reviewed oncology journal.
CyberKnife, also known as SBRT or stereotactic body radio-therapy involves the delivery of very high doses of externally-administered radiation over a small number of treatment sessions, offering convenience for patients, compared to conventional radiation therapy which requires a substantially longer course of treatment.
CyberKnife significantly reduces the number of treatments needed for prostate cancer down to 5 compared to 45 with standard radiation therapy.
There was concern that delivering high doses of radiation over a short period of time could increase toxicity levels from treatment but the research confirms that CyberKnife does not increase either gastrointestinal or genitourinary acute toxicity.
Biggest Tech Breakthrough in a Generation
The CyberKnife System is the only robotic radio-surgery system that offers highly precise, non-surgical treatment for tumors and lesions anywhere in the body—including the brain, breast, kidney, liver, lung, pancreas, prostate and spine.
CyberKnife technology tracks and automatically adjusts for tumor or patient movement during treatment, delivering the radiation dose directly to the target with sub-millimeter precision.
Synchrony® motion tracking and correction technology expands on the CyberKnife System’s unique motion synchronization capabilities to provide additional precision when treating tumors that move with respiration.
The high level of accuracy in dose delivery made possible by the system gives clinical teams the confidence to deliver state-of-the-art treatments for a wide range of cancers and functional disorders, without sacrificing patients’ quality of life.
Experts say older radiation technology still being used by many medical facilities will soon be outdated and replaced by new devices like CyberKnife which will have a great and positive impact on cancer patients lives.
SBRT is cost-effective for healthcare providers and payers, and also increases patient satisfaction by reducing scheduling inconvenience versus conventional radiation treatments.
Chief Investigator of the study, Dr. Nicholas van As, Consultant Clinical Oncologist at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, and Reader at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, said: “At The Royal Marsden and the ICR we are focused on developing smarter, better and kinder treatments for patients across the UK and internationally. Developments in radiotherapy such as SBRT mean we can target tumors much more effectively. It is reassuring to see from this trial that SBRT does not significantly impact patients’ quality of life in the short term, compared with the current standard of care. Using SBRT to deliver this treatment would mean that patients could be spared numerous visits to the hospital, allowing them to get back to their lives sooner.”
The prostate gland can move unpredictably — as much as 10 mm in as little as 30 seconds — throughout the course of treatment because of normal patient bodily functions.
This makes it critically important to be able to track, detect and correct for all types of motion.
The CyberKnife Treatment Delivery System, designed to deliver SBRT, is the only radiotherapy device that can maintain sub-millimetric accuracy with continual imaging and automatic beam delivery corrections, including rotation, throughout treatment delivery, making it easier for clinicians to effectively treat patients while minimizing dose to healthy tissue.
“The patient-reported outcomes, when viewed alongside those of the participating clinicians, provide compelling rationale for treating prostate cancer patients with SBRT, an effective and much more convenient option for patients,” said Birgit Fleurent, Chief Marketing Officer of Accuray, the manufacturer of CyberKnife. “With more than 15 years of expertise and more than 100 peer-reviewed articles, there is robust clinical data supporting the safety and efficacy of CyberKnife SBRT for the treatment of patients with low-and intermediate-risk prostate cancer. And now, with the Accuray Precision® Treatment Planning System and the CyberKnife VOLO™ Optimizer, clinicians are able to significantly reduce both the time to create high quality treatment plans and the time to deliver patient treatments.”
To learn more talk to our prostate cancer experts at CyberKnife Miami 305-279-2900 and go to our website www.prostatecancertreatmentmiami.com
Here’s the Link to see the full study in The Lancet Oncology