What Is CyberKnife?

CyberKnife® is an innovative, highly precise, noninvasive alternative to open surgery. The revolutionary technique uses a computer-guided robot arm to deliver radiation with sub-millimeter accuracy. This advanced treatment can target a point from thousands of angles, allowing radiation oncologists to treat difficult to reach tumors or unusually shaped masses.

Since CyberKnife is a form of stereotactic radiosurgery (surgery employing a precise radiation beam on 3 planes), this outpatient procedure is bloodless (no surgical incision is necessary) and doesn’t require anesthesia.

Using a linear accelerator to generate radiation beams, the CyberKnife system under experienced physicians’ guidance can treat tumors anywhere in the body.

What Conditions Does CyberKnife Treat?

Stereotactic radiosurgery provides noninvasive treatment for a variety of inoperable or surgically complex central nervous system (CNS) tumors, such as brain and spine tumors including:

• acoustic neuromas — benign tumors on the nerve to the ear
• gliomas — tumors that originate in the glial cells of the brain
• metastases — cancer that spreads from one part of the body to another
• meningiomas — usually benign, tumors that start from the meninges (a membrane covering the brain)
• pituitary adenomas — benign tumor at the base of the brain
• Schwannomas — an overproduction of Schwann cells that grow slowly around the nerve

CyberKnife can also be used to treat other conditions, often by ablating (surgically destroying) disorder-causing tissues:

• arteriovenous malformations — a tangle of veins and arteries forming a vascular abnormality
• temporal lobe epilepsy — epilepsy that originates in the temporal lobe of the brain
• other types of epilepsy
• trigeminal neuralgia — intense face pain, often caused pressure on the trigeminal nerve
• tremors
• unmanageable chronic pain conditions
• certain obsessive-compulsive disorders

State-of-the-Art CyberKnife Treatments at NSPC

Using the most advanced technologies, our seasoned neurosurgeons at Neurological Surgery, P.C. (NSPC) can treat difficult to reach brain tumors, benign or malignant, and many other brain and spine conditions with leading-edge technology.

As part of the CyberKnife System, innovative advancements have made stereotactic surgery even more comfortable and safer for patients:

• 6D Skull Tracking system — With continuous intracranial tracking software, patients no longer need to have stereotactic head frames pinning their cranium in place.
• Synchrony Respiratory Motion Tracking System — Beams are matched to your breathing patterns, so you won’t need to hold your breath.
• Xsight® Spine Tracking System and Xsight Spine Prone Tracking System — Allows you to lie on your back or stomach without the need for surgical implantation of a marker for the computerized system to track your spine.