Cyber-knife - a robotic radiosurgical unit, which is used to treat malignant tumors in the brain, liver, spine, as well as benign neoplasms. The cyber knife treatment procedure has almost no contraindications and is accompanied by minimal side effects.
Operating principle
The installation is quite simple: the cyber knife includes a linear accelerator that generates radiation that destroys the tumor, and the device itself that sets the direction of radiation. The device is equipped with cameras that allow you to get an x-ray image of the cancerous organ at different angles and, depending on this, change the direction of the radiation beam.
Indications
Treatment with a cyber-knife is preferable if the neoplasm is located in places that are difficult to access for surgical manipulations (in the brain or spine). This procedure is widely used for cancer of the liver, pancreas, kidneys, lungs, organs of vision, central nervous system tumors.
Benefits
One of the main advantages of a cyber knife is its high accuracy of exposure. The unit purposefully affects the tumor with a powerful radiation stream, almost without damaging healthy parts of the organ. Cyber-knife is effective in the treatment of cancer with metastases, while being an alternative to chemotherapy and hormonal therapy.
CyberKnife sessions are one of the most modern and safe treatments that can be used to treat cancer. The cyber knife allows you to quickly and easily get rid of oncology. The treatment session on the installation lasts from half an hour to two hours. Usually the course of therapy includes several sessions. Their number is determined by the size of the tumor.
Cyber-knife is effective in the treatment of neoplasms up to 4 cm in diameter. The device is often used to remove meningiomas located near the optic nerves - due to its high accuracy, a cyber knife session is much safer than classical surgical intervention.
The undoubted advantage of this procedure is that it does not require anesthesia. General anesthesia has many contraindications, including myocardial infarction, bronchial asthma, hormonal diseases, heart failure. It is these pathologies that are absolute contraindications for anesthesia and, accordingly, for invasive surgery. However, this does not apply to a cyber knife . This treatment method itself is not invasive and painless.
The side effects of this procedure are much less than conventional radiation therapy or chemotherapy. Among the side effects are general weakness and dizziness, which disappear after a few days. The course of rehabilitation after treatment is minimal, and in some cases it is not required at all.
Contraindications
The main contraindication to the procedure is a large tumor size (more than 4-5 cm in diameter).
Contraindications also include brain dislocation (displacement of brain structures due to trauma) or even a suspicion of the presence of any dislocation syndrome.
A cyber knife is not used for decompensation - a violation of the organ (heart, liver) or organ system, in which their functions can no longer be restored. The most common causes of decompensations are overwork, stress, diseases of various etiologies, and old age. If it is obviously impossible to restore the functions of an organ, then exposing it to radiation is pointless. In the case of decompensation, the organ affected by the tumor is usually replaced by a donor organ.
Procedure cost
Therapy with the help of a cyber knife is a procedure, without a doubt, effective and having many advantages over other methods of treatment of oncology. Many patients will prefer a progressive and accurate setting such as a cyber knife to surgery. The cost of treatment depends on the size and location of the tumor, the stage of the disease and the particular clinic. The price varies from 7 to 13 thousand US dollars. This cost does not include preliminary diagnostic procedures (X-ray, MRI, laboratory tests), which must be completed before treatment. It is these procedures that help determine the exact location of the tumor, its size, the presence or absence of matastases.