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CyberKnife
Spinal Radiosurgery Tumors
Arteriovenous Malformations Stereotactic Radiosurgery has beem very effective in curing brain arteriovenous malformations. Now with the CyberKnife, we can get the same effectiveness with arteriovenous malformations of the spine and spinal cord. Using CyberKnife with or without embolization
techniques, some previously untreatable vascular malformations can be cured.
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In October of 2003, the department of Neurological Surgery at USC added a CyberKnife Stereotactic Radiosurgical System to its armamentarium of high tech radiosurgical devices. The CyberKnife uses a highly sophisticated robot to deliver the radiation beam. Further it uses real time X-ray images to continually update the target position to insure pinpoint accuracy. This allows true radiosurgery to be performed (as opposed to radiotherapy) without the need to immobilize the patient with a stereotactic frame. Thus patient comfort is maximized without the expense of decreasing accuracy. Other important benefits of the CyberKnife System include the ability to treat other areas of the body besides the brain, and the ability to divide up the radiation dose so we can treat larger lesions more safely.
Now more effective and safe radiation treatment is available to patients with spinal tumors, especially malignant ones. The most common tumor affecting the spine is a cancer that has spread from another organ in the body. A combination of surgery and radiation therapy is usually prescribed to treat this condition. The radiation treatments are traditionally given in small doses over many days. With the advent of the CyberKnife, we can now give larger doses of radiation pinpointed directly to the tumor. This allows the radiation to be given more effectively limiting the radiation spread to the spinal cord. In some circumstances a CyberKnife treatment may obviate the need for surgery. In other cases, CyberKnife treatment may delay or prevent the recurrence of the tumor previously resected with surgery. We have treated over 50 patients with malignant tumors to the spine. Many of them originate from lung, breast, and prostate.
In some circumstances, benign tumors of the spine can benefit from CyberKnife treatment. Meningiomas and schwannomas may for safety reasons, not be able to be totally removed with surgery. The CyberKnife can give enough radiation for these types of tumors, to limit the possibility of their growing back.