CyberKnife Radiosurgery

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CyberKnife^® Radiosurgery

CyberKnife is a precise, painless and non-invasive radiation treatment for cancer and neurosurgical treatments such as for trigeminal neuralgia.

What is CyberKnife?

Painless and better quality of life

The CyberKnife system is based on radiation technology that has been proven for 30 years and in 2001 it received FDA (the US medical regulatory body) clearance for treatment of tumours anywhere in the body where radiation was indicated. It is also approved in Canada, the European Union, Switzerland, Japan, Taiwan and many other countries.

GammaKnife is not a full body treatment. It has advantages in some respects but it can only provide intracranial treatments and requires an intrusive head frame to be screwed into the skull, which CyberKnife does not require. You can find further details on the differences between these two systems on our dedicated website www.cyberknifeservice.com. The surgeons at some centres (e.g. Munich and Zurich) have chosen to stop offering GammaKnife treatments once CyberKnife is operational.

For an overview of current treatments visit the CyberKnife treatments page.

How does CyberKnife® differ from GammaKnife®?

The position of the tumour is recalculated between each of many precisely tuned doses of radiation, which are delivered from many different angles and positions, focussing tightly on the lesion to be treated.

CyberKnife can treat complex tumours wrapped around sensitive structures such as nerves or blood vessels, where surgeons cannot operate.

A small linear accelerator (linac) is mounted on a robotic arm which manoeuvres with exceptional agility around the patient and a scanner tracks the tumour through small body movements.

Radiosurgery without intrusive frames

Because treatment is painless there is no need for anaesthesia in most cases. There is no surgical incision so no risk of infections and reduced risk of complications compared to traditional open surgery. After treatment there is no recovery time so you simply resume normal activities.

Is CyberKnife clinically proven?

Different countries have their own regulatory approval procedures which may affect how quickly the technology is taken up and many Asian countries do not yet have CyberKnife centres. Many clinical studies have been published in medical journals however, thousands of patients have received treatment and there are now 140 systems installed worldwide.

Visit the manufacturer's web site to read more on the clinical development of CyberKnife

Web sites in 30 countries

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MHL CyberKnife South Africa
cyberknife.co.za