CyberKnife; East meets West
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| Dr. Brian Collins |
Dr. Collins is a fellow of the American College of Chest Physicians and also serves is an assistant professor for the department of radiation medicine at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington D.C.
He specializes in tumors of the lung and pancreas and is well versed on CyberKnife’s® unique capability to track moving tumors using the Synchrony System (soft tumor treatment for CyberKnife®). This course will offer insight into the technological capacity of the CyberKnife® system. After the presentation, members of Community’s dedicated CyberKnife® team will be on hand to answer any questions.
Community Regional was the first medical center in the world to offer "Gen 4" CyberKnife® technology. In 2002, Georgetown was the first center on the East Coast and the sixth in the nation to obtain CyberKnife®. With the second-highest caseload volume in the United States, Georgetown’s CyberKnife® team started treating patients with a second CyberKnife® in July.
The knifeless, non-invasive surgical procedure uses image-guided technology to accurately target and treat tumors throughout the body. Community’s CyberKnife® is located at the Charles and Ann Matoian Oncology Unit at Community Regional. It is the only one of its kind in central California.
As lung cancer has become the leading cause of death in both men and women, the only treatment has been a painful and difficult surgery to remove cancerous tumors. CyberKnife® is for those who do not qualify for surgery.
"When you hear 'cancer,' that's a death sentence. And especially lung cancer," said patient JoAnn Schwab.
Schwab wasn't a candidate for major surgery because it would have caused too much damage to her already frail lung, so doctors turned to CyberKnife®.
"We can target the beam and follow the tumor, therefore only delivering radiation to the tumor and not to the normal lung,” Dr. Collins said. "The major concern of the patients who've had the CyberKnife® has been whether they've been treated at all because the side effects are so minimal.”
Schwab not only beat Stage 1 lung cancer, but she said she feels great and is working every day. She hopes CyberKnife® also can help some of the 170,000 people who die from this deadly cancer each year.
"We're amazed by what it can accomplish," Dr. Collins said.
During the CyberKnife® procedure, more than 100 beams of radiation enter the body from different angles. By itself, each small beam of radiation does not damage the healthy tissue or organs it passes through. It is when these beams intersect at the target that a high enough dose is delivered to destroy the target.
CyberKnife® is capable of reaching tumors that are unreachable with other stereotactic systems, patients do not have to wear uncomfortable restraints fixed to their skulls or bodies during treatment as is required with other systems. Its advanced image-guided stereotactic robotic system delivers radiation so precisely that it can stay on target even if a patient moves during treatment.
The patient benefits to such sophistication include:
- Minimal pain or discomfort and no incisions
- Minimal risk of complications associated with other conventional therapies
- Ability to treat tumors previously considered inoperable
- Treatment performed as an outpatient procedure (no hospital stay or anesthesia)
- Short to no recovery period
- Immediate return to normal activity and fewer visits
- The ability to treat multiple tumors at different locations during a single treatment
- May also experience dramatic pain relief after CyberKnife® treatment
Use of CyberKnife® technology has been expanded to treat cancers of the lung, pancreas, liver and prostate; treatments for the breast and other areas of the body are expected in the future.
For more information about Community Regional’s CyberKnife® stereotactic radiosurgery system or Dr. Collins’ CME seminar, please call Natalie Silva at (559) 459-2752.
This story was reported by Rebecca Wass. She can be reached at rwass@communitymedical.org.