Treatment of the Brain

“CyberKnife is extremely useful as both an alternative to open surgery for brain and spine tumors as well as the treatment of trigeminal neuralgia. The results have been excellent. We have had many instances of complete tumor eradication, and over 90 percent success in the relief of trigeminal neuralgia pain.”

Stephen Calderon, M.D.

The advantage of CyberKnife radiosurgery over traditional surgery is that no skull opening, or craniotomy, is required.  As a result, there is no surgical trauma to the brain.  Another benefit of radiosurgery is that a patient is not required to be put under general anesthesia (which entails a breathing tube); this is an important alternative to surgery for patients who are not in otherwise good health.

The unique combination of technologies allows the CyberKnife to overcome the limitations of other radiosurgery systems.  Traditional stereotactic techniques, including the Gamma Knife, rely on a rigid metal frame anchored to a patient’s skull for head immobilization and target localization.  Such frame-based systems have numerous limitations.

  • Restricts treatment to the brain area only
  • Limits the possible angles from which radiation can be delivered
  • Causes considerable discomfort for the patient when the frame is surgically affixed to the skull and while it remains in place during planning and throughout treatment

Because the CyberKnife does not require a frame for tumor localization, the overall length of the procedure is generally much shorter than the required frame-based radiosurgical methods such as Gamma Knife treatment.

CyberKnife stereotactic radiosurgery offers other unique features to treat tumors, including a computer-controlled robotic arm that provides access to lesions and tumors unreachable by most other stereotactic radiosurgery systems.

Multiple metastases that are widely dispersed throughout the brain, for example, are treated more easily in a single session, thanks to CyberKnife’s advanced image-guidance system.  For the vast majority of metastatic brain tumors, they too, are treated in outpatient visits, usually requiring less than an hour for each treatment.