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In their first 8 weeks of treatment Oklahoma CyberKnife completed morethan 50 total treatments, including patients with cancer of the prostate,lung, brain, spine and kidney. An example of the dramatic decrease intreatment time is the Center's recent prostate cancer treatment, which wascompleted in less than 40 minutes. Other US Radiosurgery facilities, whichinclude Boulder, Colo., Philadelphia and Salt Lake City, are treating prostatecancer in approximately 75 minutes using the earlier model CyberKnife System.
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"The next generation CyberKnife System incorporates a number of newfeatures that enhance treatment planning and result in faster treatmenttimes," said Diane Heaton, M.D., medical director at Oklahoma CyberKnife,which was the first facility in the world to install the upgraded technology."With these advanced tools, I believe we will progress to the point of doing10-15 CyberKnife treatments a day."
The next generation CyberKnife System installed at Oklahoma CyberKnifeincorporates a number of sophisticated technologies to achieve a considerablereduction in treatment times, including:
-- Sequential Optimization Planning Tool -- enables treatment plans to bedeveloped in as little as 15 minutes.
-- 800 Monitor Unit/Minute Linear Accelerator -- delivers higher doses ofradiation to tumors, resulting in treatment times that are up to 30 percentfaster than previous systems.
-- Iris(TM) Variable Aperture Collimator -- enables very conformal,multi-collimator treatments to be rapidly delivered to even the most complextargets.
-- Optimized Path Traversal -- supports more efficient robotic motion byallowing the CyberKnife System to skip over nodes where radiation dose is notbeing delivered.
"Even after just two months, it is clear that the improvements made to theCyberKnife System will enable us to increase the number of patients we expectto treat at our Oklahoma facility," said Greg Spurlock, chief operatingofficer of US Radiosurgery. "The next generation CyberKnife System is makingsuch a significant, positive impact on our business model and the efficacy ofour Oklahoma facility that we are considering upgrading the CyberKnife Systemsat some of our busiest centers in order to better meet demand."
The average CyberKnife treatment is completed in 3 outpatient visits.Compared to the 40 outpatient visits commonplace with conventional radiationtherapy, the next generation CyberKnife System can significantly ease theburden on both patients and providers by offering a nearly 60 percentreduction in total treatment time.
In addition to Oklahoma CyberKnife, which opened in July 2008, USRadiosurgery is installing another next generation CyberKnife System in a newReno, Nev., facility that is expected to open within the next month.
About the CyberKnife(R) Robotic Radiosurgery System
The CyberKnife Robotic Radiosurgery System is the world's only roboticradiosurgery system designed to treat tumors anywhere in the bodynon-invasively. Using continual image guidance technology and computercontrolled robotic mobility, the CyberKnife System automatically tracks,detects and corrects for tumor and patient movement in real-time throughoutthe treatment. This enables the CyberKnife System to deliver high-doseradiation with p
