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CyberKnife Allows High-Level Precision

Posted on: Monday, 19 December 2005, 03:02 CST

By Tampone, Kevin

JOHNSON CITY - Evaporating a brain tumor in a matter of two or three treatments may seem like science fiction, but Wilson Regional Medical Center in Johnson City now houses equipment that can do just that. "When you do radiation therapy, if you're getting radiation for a brain tumor, you might be treated with 20 or 30 separate [treatments]," says Dr. John Gartman, a neurosurgeon and medical director for the CyberKnife Center of New York at Wilson, located at 33 Harrison St. "With this, in one or two or three treatments, we can actually deposit enough radiation into the tumor to take care of it."

CyberKnife, manufactured by Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Accuray, Inc., is a powerful device that lets doctors deliver high doses of radiation with unprecedented accuracy, Gartman says. The Southern New York Neurosurgical Group, P.C., which is independent from Wilson Regional Medical Center, paid for the equipment, which cost about $4.5 million.

CyberKnife has been in service at Wilson since September.

The equipment can be used to treat a variety of conditions such as pain syndromes and blood-vessel disorders. The majority of its applications are in treating tumors, Gartman says.

The device consists of a robotic arm that is positioned over a patient. The device then delivers radiation directly where doctors want it to go.

The advanced computer modeling and planning capabilities that CyberKnife possesses allow doctors to target tumors accurately, Gartman says. That avoids exposing healthy or sensitive areas to the radiation, he explains.

"It allows us to create an area of radiation deposition that very closely follows the borders of what the target is," he says. "It lets us deposit a lot of radiation in one, specific area."

For example, if a patient has a tumor on the pituitary gland, located at the base of the brain, radiation to that area must be as confined as possible because nerves that are extremely sensitive to radiation are found in the same area.

The sensitivity of the equipment also allows for greater patient comfort, Gartman says. Previous methods of delivering high doses of radiation often required total immobilization.

Those methods could also not monitor targets the way CyberKnife can. Doctors would set a patient in position and then run the procedure, never knowing if something shifted or moved.

CyberKnife allows physicians to monitor patients' movements and the position of the radiation target as the procedure progresses, which means they can make real-time adjustments, Gartman explains.

"With this, the position of the target is constantly monitored," he says. "If the patient moves, the robot will automatically adjust."

Earlier equipment used for these types of procedures was also confined largely to the head, Gartman says. CyberKnife can be used in treatments anywhere on the body.

What happens to a tumor after the treatment depends on the situation, Gartman adds. Sometimes the growth will simply liquefy and disappear. Other times, the process will simply stop a tumor's growth in its tracks.

"This is the kind of stuff that goes on the wish list of major universities and research hospitals," Gartman says.

He says his surgical group decided to go after the equipment to bring a state-of-the-art treatment option to Upstate New York.

The CyberKnife, in Johnson City was the first one introduced in New York; a second one was later introduced at a Long Island health- care facility. Nationwide, there are just 30 in service.

Wilson Regional Medical Center is a 296-bed teaching hospital providing medical-surgical services, including cardiology, emergency medicine, neonatology, nephrology, maternity care, pediatrics, perinatology, pulmonary medicine, neuroscience, ophthalmology, and renal dialysis.

Copyright Central New York Business Journal Nov 11, 2005

Source: Business Journal - Central New York, The

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