Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Treats Patients with CyberKnife Robotic System

The Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) was successful in treating its 2,000^th patient with the CyberKnife Robotic Radio Surgery System from Accuray.

The BIDMC is the first medical center in New England to offer treatment using the CyberKnife System and has achieved this major milestone in less than six years. At the Keith C. Field CyberKnife centre of BIDMC, an average of 450 patients suffering from intracranial and extra cranialtumours are treated every year with the CyberKnife system. The robotic system not only enhances the diagnostic and surgical services at the hospital but also offers the patients in New England an opportunity to receive innovative, non-invasive treatment.

The CyberKnife system at BIDMC was upgraded in November 2010 by including the Iris Variable Collimator, which significantly enhanced the overall output and efficiency. Irving Kaplan, the MD at BIDMC Prostate Center, stressed on the importance of the robotic system in their minimally invasive therapy. He is also an Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology at Harvard medical School. He added that the CyberKnife system provided unmatched accuracy and helps in delivering critical radiation doses to targeted tissue alone and spares the healthy tissues. By using this system of treatment they are able to minimise the side effects of radiation therapy and improve the overall patients experience at the hospital. The CyberKnife system efficiently tracks the tumour movement and automatically corrects its target position; this automatic correction enables physicians to perform radiosurgery and SBRT on all the tumours in the body.

With such accurate delivery of radiation doses the need for interruption during treatment is absent and the treatment can be extended to lung, prostate SBRT and liver treatment as well by targeting only the cancerous tissues.