Cyberknife Radiation Therapy

 
At Naples Urology Associates, we are proud to offer our customers the latest innovations in urological health. As a result, we now offer our prostate and kidney cancer patients the chance to be treated with the innovative Cyberknife System. This system delivers radiation directly into the tumor through a cutting-edge image guidance system.


Video: CyberKnife Introduction

 


Video: CyberKnife What to Expect

 

The Cyberknife System is composed of an accelerator mounted to a robotic arm that is guided by real-time images of the patient’s organ. The arm fires multiple x-ray radiation beams into the tumor. Because the robotic arm is able to move all the way around the body, the Cyberknife is able to deliver the x-ray radiation directly into the tumor, sparing much more of the surrounding tissue than is possible with other urological cancer treatments. Because the arm is able to track the organ as the treatment is being given, even slight movements that the patient makes can be compensated for during treatment. This means that you will not have to be restrained while receiving this treatment. The robotic arm can even compensate for the change in position caused by sudden movements, such as a sneeze or cough. The x-ray radiation effectively destroys the cancer while preserving most of the tissue around it.

 

The Cyberknife System provides many benefits to patients that are not available with other radiation treatment options. First, it requires few treatment sessions. Most urological cancers will be destroyed after one to five sessions with Cyberknife radiation therapy, compared to over 30 treatments with other radiation delivery methods. Also, because of the pinpoint accuracy of the Cyberknife machine, patients experience far fewer side effects than they experience with other radiation delivery methods. The risk of impotence and incontinence are greatly lowered with this device when it is used to treat prostate cancer.

In addition to these benefits, treatment with the Cyberknife requires no incision, thus it causes no blood loss. Also, since there is no pain involved with the procedure, patients will not need to undergo anesthesia. This means that patients can return to their normal routines immediately after treatment. There is no recovery time associated with this procedure.