CyberKnife Stereotactic Radiosurgery
Our Approach to CyberKnife
The CyberKnife system is a noninvasive, robotic delivery system for radiation therapy that treats some cancerous and noncancerous tumors and other conditions. CyberKnife delivers precise pulses of high-dose radiation that target certain tumors and other abnormal tissues, while limiting exposure to surrounding healthy tissues.
Stanford neurosurgeons invented CyberKnife, revolutionizing cancer care by reducing treatment time and treating tumors that were considered inoperable. Stanford also offered the first linear accelerator in the western hemisphere to be used in radiation therapy. These innovations have since been used to successfully treat millions of people around the world and Stanford remains a sought-after referral center that offers more experience with CyberKnife than any care team in the world.
Stanford doctors have also led the way in expanding the use of CyberKnife, to treat other conditions such as noncancerous tumors, neurologic disorders.
What We Offer You for CyberKnife
- Internationally recognized expertise and experience through developing CyberKnife treatment standards.
- Advanced imaging technology managed by specialists in neuroradiology, cardiovascular radiology, and more.
- Team-based treatment planning that draws on the collective expertise from radiation oncology, surgical specialties, medical oncology, interventional radiology, radiology, pathology, and supportive therapies to collaborate on your needs.
- Comprehensive support services like occupational or physical rehabilitation, nutritional and emotional support to help you with your specific symptoms and the challenges of this experience.
- Leading research to develop more ways to use CyberKnife, including new guidelines for radioprotectants, which protect healthy tissue from treatment and reduce radiation side effects.
- Assistance from our International Medical Services team to plan your international travel and accommodations.
INTERESTED IN AN ONLINE SECOND OPINION?
The Stanford Medicine Online Second Opinion program offers you easy access to our world-class doctors. It’s all done remotely, and you don’t have to visit our hospital or one of our clinics for this service. You don’t even need to leave home!
Visit our online second opinion page to learn more.
CyberKnife Features & Benefits
CyberKnife is a noninvasive radiosurgery system that treats some cancerous and noncancerous tumors and certain other conditions - without the need for incisions. Radiosurgery is precisely focused radiation therapy that targets cancer cells and other types of diseased tissue, minimizing exposure to nearby, healthy tissue.
CyberKnife offers a number of advantages over other radiosurgery systems and conventional radiation therapy:
Precision
Flexible options
Comfort
CyberKnife delivers treatment precision within a millimeter (the thickness of a credit card). Important advances in imaging, robotics, and other technologies help drive the CyberKnife system’s unprecedented accuracy and results. This ability to precisely target the delivery of radiation provides a number of important benefits:
- More radiation to the target: CyberKnife enables higher-dose radiation to the target region for faster, more effective treatment than with standard radiation therapy.
- Less radiation to healthy tissue: Surrounding healthy tissues receive significantly less radiation than with traditional radiation therapy.
- Safe alternative to radiation: CyberKnife can safely treat tumors that had previously received radiotherapy. It’s also safe and effective for other conditions and tumors that cannot be treated with traditional radiation because they are too close to critical brain, spinal cord, or other tissue.
- Advanced imaging for treatment planning: Each tumor has a unique shape, size, and location. CyberKnife’s technology integrates and studies results from various forms of imaging, such as CT, MRI, and PET scans, to develop a treatment plan for targeting and delivering the radiation beam.
- Real-time tumor tracking: The system uses specialized imaging and tumor tracking capabilities to verify the exact tumor position before delivering the radiation beam. The tracking continues during the delivery of radiation, accounting for any movements you make, including breathing. This tracking ensures that radiation is delivered precisely to the tumor and not to surrounding healthy tissue. It also protects healthy tissue by blocking the delivery of radiation should the tumor moves out of its beam.
We offer single- or multi-day delivery options to meet your unique medical needs for the best possible treatment.
Other radiation systems that use an invasive frame to stabilize the body must restrict treatment to one day. That’s because the body must stay in the same position during treatment. But shorter treatment may be less safe for nearby tissue — and less effective.
With CyberKnife, you can safely receive as many treatments as needed for your specific case. The system uses continual image guidance to track any movement of the target tissue during treatment. CyberKnife locks onto the target — without the need for invasive frames — delivering radiation only when the tumor is in the beam.
With noninvasive treatment, few short visits, and easy coordination, CyberKnife gets you back to your life quickly.
- CyberKnife is noninvasive. CyberKnife is radiation therapy, not surgery. Treatments do not require invasive frames to stabilize the head or body as required with other types of radiosurgery.
- CyberKnife treatment is brief. CyberKnife treatment usually involves one or possibly up to five visits lasting 45 minutes to one hour.
- CyberKnife treatments are easy to coordinate. Our CyberKnife patient coordinators serve as your point of contact during your treatment. They handle insurance authorization and schedule your follow-up imaging and visits with your surgeon.
- We coordinate your CyberKnife treatments with other treatments. For people with tumors that have spread to the brain, you can receive CyberKnife treatments without interfering with other scheduled cancer treatments.
CyberKnife delivers treatment precision within a millimeter (the thickness of a credit card). Important advances in imaging, robotics, and other technologies help drive the CyberKnife system’s unprecedented accuracy and results. This ability to precisely target the delivery of radiation provides a number of important benefits:
- More radiation to the target: CyberKnife enables higher-dose radiation to the target region for faster, more effective treatment than with standard radiation therapy.
- Less radiation to healthy tissue: Surrounding healthy tissues receive significantly less radiation than with traditional radiation therapy.
- Safe alternative to radiation: CyberKnife can safely treat tumors that had previously received radiotherapy. It’s also safe and effective for other conditions and tumors that cannot be treated with traditional radiation because they are too close to critical brain, spinal cord, or other tissue.
- Advanced imaging for treatment planning: Each tumor has a unique shape, size, and location. CyberKnife’s technology integrates and studies results from various forms of imaging, such as CT, MRI, and PET scans, to develop a treatment plan for targeting and delivering the radiation beam.
- Real-time tumor tracking: The system uses specialized imaging and tumor tracking capabilities to verify the exact tumor position before delivering the radiation beam. The tracking continues during the delivery of radiation, accounting for any movements you make, including breathing. This tracking ensures that radiation is delivered precisely to the tumor and not to surrounding healthy tissue. It also protects healthy tissue by blocking the delivery of radiation should the tumor moves out of its beam.
close Precision
We offer single- or multi-day delivery options to meet your unique medical needs for the best possible treatment.
Other radiation systems that use an invasive frame to stabilize the body must restrict treatment to one day. That’s because the body must stay in the same position during treatment. But shorter treatment may be less safe for nearby tissue — and less effective.
With CyberKnife, you can safely receive as many treatments as needed for your specific case. The system uses continual image guidance to track any movement of the target tissue during treatment. CyberKnife locks onto the target — without the need for invasive frames — delivering radiation only when the tumor is in the beam.
close Flexible options
With noninvasive treatment, few short visits, and easy coordination, CyberKnife gets you back to your life quickly.
- CyberKnife is noninvasive. CyberKnife is radiation therapy, not surgery. Treatments do not require invasive frames to stabilize the head or body as required with other types of radiosurgery.
- CyberKnife treatment is brief. CyberKnife treatment usually involves one or possibly up to five visits lasting 45 minutes to one hour.
- CyberKnife treatments are easy to coordinate. Our CyberKnife patient coordinators serve as your point of contact during your treatment. They handle insurance authorization and schedule your follow-up imaging and visits with your surgeon.
- We coordinate your CyberKnife treatments with other treatments. For people with tumors that have spread to the brain, you can receive CyberKnife treatments without interfering with other scheduled cancer treatments.
close Comfort
Next Steps
We take a multispecialty approach to treating cancerous and noncancerous tumors, neurologic conditions, and other conditions using CyberKnife radiation therapy. We can treat people quickly – minimizing impact on daily life.
RELATED CLINICS
CyberKnife Stereotactic Radiosurgery
Our expert radiologists use CyberKnife stereotactic radiation therapy to treat cancerous and noncancerous tumors, neurologic and other conditions.
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