More than any other cancer or condition, brain tumors can have lasting and life-altering physical, cognitive, and psychological impacts on a patient’s life. It is important to find the treatment that is right for you and will treat the tumor while minimizing radiation exposure to surrounding healthy tissue.
The CyberKnife® Robotic Radiosurgery System is a proven and effective treatment option for brain tumors. The System painlessly delivers precise beams of high-dose radiation to brain tumors without incisions, hospitalization, or a long recovery time. It is an excellent treatment for brain tumors that are considered inoperable because of their location in the head, for patients who are not good candidates for surgery due to other health or medical conditions, or for patients who choose not to undergo surgery.
The System also improves on other radiosurgery techniques, like Gamma Knife, by having patients wear thermoplastic masks (mesh masks) during treatment, eliminating the need for a fixed metal head frame attached with screws to the patient’s head. CyberKnife enables stereotactic targeting without a stereotactic frame, enhancing patient comfort, and simplifying the procedure. Simple immobilization devices such as masks and a foam cradle keep the patient comfortably in position throughout the treatment.
The CyberKnife is composed of a linear accelerator mounted on a robotic arm. The highly maneuverable, precise delivery system enables physicians to achieve an exceptional level of accuracy in a noninvasive manner. During treatment, the patient lies still and relaxes as the CyberKnife’s computer-controlled arm moves quietly around the head area, delivering high-dose radiation directly to the tumor, ablating the cells of the tumor while minimizing radiation exposure to critical areas in the brain. In addition to the accuracy, CyberKnife also delivers higher doses of radiation, dramatically shortening the length of treatment. Instead of up to 45 days, CyberKnife treatment is completed in daily sessions lasting anywhere from one to five days, meaning you will be finished with cancer treatment in a maximum of five days, and oftentimes, we are able to treat patients with just one or a few sessions.
There are several advantages of CyberKnife for brain tumors, including:
- Outpatient procedure, no anesthesia or hospitalization required
- Five or fewer treatment sessions
- Noninvasive, no incisions needed
- Typically pain-free treatment
- Reaches brain tumors from virtually unlimited directions with robotic mobility
- Targets individual brain tumors with pinpoint accuracy
- Enables clinicians to maximize and conform the dose to the brain tumor
- Minimal radiation exposure to healthy tissue surrounding the brain tumor
- Little to no recovery time and almost immediate return to your normal daily activities
- Minimal, if any, side effects due to pinpoint precision of high-dose radiation delivery
For more information on how Louisville CyberKnife treats brain tumors with CyberKnife technology please visit this page or contact our center today.