Cyberknife® system

SHORT VERSION

Cyberknife® is a robotic stereotactic radiation therapy device: a miniature linear accelerator is embeded on the robotic arm that can move in the three dimensions around the patient with six degrees of freedom. This device is used to treat hard-to-reach tumors.

The Cyberknife® system is the first and onlyrobotic stereotactic radiation therapy device.. The technology was developed at Stanford University in the late 1990s and is currently marketed by Accuray.

This device includes:

  • a miniaturized linear accelerator embedded on a robotic arm that moves in the three dimensions around the patient with six degrees of freedom
  • an on-board imaging system to monitor the tumor’s motion in real time during the treatment session.

This technique is extremely precise(less than a millimeter)and this allows significantly increasing the dose delivered to the tumor area at each session (up to 20 Gy per session compared with 2 Gy per session in a conventional treatment). To do this, the tumor is targeted by a multitude of beams (from 100 to 200 at each session) to fit and concentrate the dose on the tumor shape.. Moreover, the system is controlled by a real-time imaging system to monitor the patient’s movements (and consequently also the tumor motion) and to take them into account by moving the robotic arm for precise dose delivery.

Indeed, the robot tracks the patient’s position and breathing movements during the entire session.

Therefore, the Cyberknife® system is used to treat difficult-to-reach tumors with great precision Therefore, the Cyberknife® system is used to treat difficult-to-reach tumors with great precision, particularly brain, liver, lung, and pancreas tumors.