New Denver CyberKnife Article
Denver CyberKnife Featured in Medical Products Outsourcing
Dr. Gregg Dickerson, the medical director of Denver CyberKnife was recently quoted in an article by Michael Barbella in Medical Product Outsourcing’s September 2009 issue. As a leader in radiation oncology and, more specifically, radiosurgery, Dr. Dickerson was able to provide expert information to the author.
The following (in blue) is an excerpt from the article that features CyberKnife. The full article can be accessed at: http://www.mpo-mag.com/articles/2009/09/embarking-on-a-fantastic-voyage
In 2001 (the same year Intuitive Surgical received approval for its da Vinci System), the FDA approved CyberKnife Radiosurgery for the treatment of tumors anywhere in the body. Since then, the company has received FDA approval for systems that enable doctors to track, detect and treat tumors in the lung, liver, pancreas and spine.
CyberKnife Radiosurgery is not actually a knife, but rather a radiation tool that can destroy tumors and lesions without surgery, pain, anesthesia or long recovery times. “CyberKnife [Radiosurgery] is able to accomplish an equivalent and perhaps superior treatment because it is not limited by the ability to remove critical tissues,” said Gregg A. Dickerson, M.D., F.A.C.R., and specialist in CyberKnife Radiosurgery at Denver CyberKnife, a radiation therapy center based in Colorado’s capital city. “We can radiate them. It’s a very surgical modality rather than a radiation tool. It’s more of a surgical instrument.”
CyberKnife Radiosurgery uses image guidance software to track and continually adjust treatment for any patient or tumor movement, allowing patients to breathe normally and relax comfortably during treatment. Before treatment, the patient undergoes imaging procedures (usually CT scans) to determine the size, shape and location of their tumor.
After the scanning is completed, doctors transfer the image data to the system’s workstation, where they identify the exact size, shape and location of the tumor to be treated. Doctors also identify the surrounding healthy tissue to be spared doses of radiation.
Once a treatment plan is created, the patient lies on a table for radiation treatments that last between 30 and 90 minutes. The treatment typically involves the administration of between 100 and 200 radiation beams delivered from different directions, each lasting 10 to 15 seconds. Before each beam of radiation is delivered, the CyberKnife Radiosurgery system simultaneously takes X-ray images and compares them to the original CT scan. This image-guided approach continually tracks, detects and corrects for any movement of the patient and tumor during the treatment process.
“CyberKnife Radiosurgery costs 30 percent to 50 percent less than a dose of radiation delivered the traditional way,” Dickerson noted. “It is a tremendous cost savings to the health care system. And patients love it. They don’t have complications afterward, they go on with their lives.”
