CyberKnife
CyberKnife is a painless and non-surgical robotic radiotherapy system. It delivers radiation with pinpoint accuracy to help treat cancer and avoid damaging healthy cells.
Quick facts
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What is it for?
To treat cancer and avoid damaging healthy cells
Treatment overview
CyberKnife is an advanced robotic radiotherapy treatment system. It delivers incredibly precise radiation to treat cancerous and non-cancerous conditions anywhere in the body. CyberKnife is completely painless and ideal if you are unable to have surgery.
With CyberKnife, your doctor can reach difficult to treat areas in your body. It’s also an alternative to conventional radiotherapy or surgery for treating cancer.
Because of the precision of CyberKnife, more intense radiotherapy is delivered to a tumour and less healthy tissue is damaged during treatment.
As a result, treatment time is much shorter compared to traditional radiotherapy. So you’ll spend less time in hospital, and you’ll be affected by fewer side effects.
At The London Clinic, your treatment with our CyberKnife machine will be overseen by world-leading oncology consultants and an expert multidisciplinary team.
You’ll also receive personalised treatment and care that puts your wellbeing and recovery at the heart of your experience with us.
Contact us today to find out if CyberKnife is right for you and start your five-star treatment journey.
Why choose The London Clinic
Excellence in one place
We operate as teams of experts with world-class resources dedicated to maintaining the highest standards of medical care. You are surrounded by the latest treatments and advice with everything you need to get back to your best health.
Personal care, every time
Exceptional patient care is a way of life for us. Our nurses, clinicians and support teams are dedicated to the care of a very small number of patients, so have more time for you. They’ll be with you every step of the way, tailoring your care around you and giving the peace-of-mind that comes with knowing you’re in the best hands.
Effortlessly simple
We work together as one to guide you through each step of your experience, with complexities unravelled and answers readily to hand. Your personal treatment plan will be laid out for you, with all the details taken care of so you can focus on you.
What's included in your package?
Choosing The London Clinic means your treatment plan will be laid out for you, with all the details taken care of so you can focus on you.
Your treatment package will include:
- Enhanced pre-admission assessment
- Your treatment with our complete care team at your fingertips
- Personalised aftercare and follow-up
We want you to be in control of your health. That’s why we also offer optional services such as comprehensive recovery packages and extra touches for you to choose from during your stay with us.
How to pay
- You can use private medical insurance (PMI) to access this treatment. We work with all major PMI providers in the UK and many internationally
- You can pay for yourself (self-pay)
- If you’re paying for yourself, we have finance options available with Chrysalis
FAQs
Stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) is the name of the treatment performed by CyberKnife. SABR used to be called stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT).
CyberKnife is a specialist SABR technology which makes it superior to similar technologies, such as Varian Edge or Elektra Precise.
CyberKnife SABR treatment is available for:
- People whose general health makes it hard for them to have extensive surgery or an anaesthetic
- People who want to avoid surgery for personal reasons
In addition, SABR can be used for tumours not suitable for conventional radiotherapy. SABR can act as a boost to previous treatment with conventional radiotherapy too.
CyberKnife doesn’t involve any physical cutting. It’s a painless treatment that uses extremely precise beams of radiation to treat a target area of the body.
This accuracy means less healthy tissue is damaged during treatment, and you spend less time in hospital.
Treatments with CyberKnife radiotherapy are often completed in a single session or three to five days as an outpatient procedure.
First, you’ll be scanned by a CT scanner or possibly an MRI scanner.
The images produced by the scanners are used by your multidisciplinary team to create a unique treatment plan for you.
Your treatment plan shows the exact area of your body to be targeted and the organs and internal structures to be protected.
The plan also shows what angles CyberKnife’s robotic arm will be positioned at and how each of the beams of radiation will target your treatment area.
Your consultant then reviews your treatment plan with our experienced Medical Physics team. Together, they decide whether it should be approved.
CyberKnife treatment usually lasts between 30 to 90 minutes.
During this time, the robotic arm of CyberKnife will position itself around you and treat you with around 80 to 150 narrow beams of radiation.
Your tumour may move slightly because of your breathing or movements of your body.
CyberKnife continually checks for this by using multiple x-ray cameras and powerful software.
If the CyberKnife machine does spot that your tumour has moved, it automatically adjusts the beams of radiation.
This maximises the accuracy of your radiation treatment at all times to avoid damage to your healthy cells and surrounding organs.
Sometimes small metal markers called fiducials may need to be implanted around the target area. Fiducials help CyberKnife track changes in the position of a tumour.
If you need fiducials, a trained CyberKnife radiologist will fit them prior to your treatment.
If you’re being treated for prostate cancer, you may also be offered a SpaceOAR gel implant to minimise the possibility of side effects.
Non-invasive
Treatment with CyberKnife radiotherapy is painless and does not require surgery.
This means there’s no need for medication or sedation (anaesthetic) to reduce pain or discomfort.
As a result, your consultant may recommend CyberKnife to you if you wish to avoid major surgery.
CyberKnife might be your best option if surgery is something that may not be suitable for you.
When you’re treated with CyberKnife, you simply lie down and relax while the robot arm of the CyberKnife machine moves around you.
The CyberKnife arm will even adjust for movements made by you and your breathing, ensuring the radiotherapy is always delivered to your cancer with great precision.
This means people with head and neck cancer do not need to wear a fixed head restraint, which is something they may be required to do as part of more conventional radiotherapy treatments. With CyberKnife you’ll normally have to wear a face mask, and we'll create this for you so it's a comfortable fit.
Incredible accuracy
CyberKnife delivers highly focused beams of radiation that treat tumours with pinpoint accuracy.
This includes cancers that previously couldn’t be treated with conventional radiotherapy or surgery. CyberKnife also features multiple x-ray cameras and powerful software.
These allow your consultant to view your tumour in real-time and accurately target your cancer throughout your treatment. We also have a 3T MRI scanner at The London Clinic that can produce high-resolution images of where your cancer is located in your body. This allows your doctor to create a treatment plan that’s incredibly detailed.
Minimal recovery time
CyberKnife is carried out as an outpatient procedure that usually lasts 30 to 90 minutes. There is no need for anaesthetic, and this reduces your recovery time. Short term side effects caused by CyberKnife are usually temporary and mild because less healthy tissue is damaged.
Any side effects you do experience will also depend on which part of your body was treated. In contrast, conventional surgery may lead to you requiring lots of support following your operation and take you several weeks to recover from. A course of CyberKnife treatment normally finishes in a week or less, allowing you to get back to your life as soon as possible.