How Cyber Knife Radiation Treatment Works

Using image guided technology and advanced robotics, Cyber Knife uses sub-millimeter accuracy to target radiation beams and destroy abnormal cells within the body, while sparing healthy cells. Cyber Knife can be used to treat tumors throughout the body due to its frameless technology that spots the exact shape and location of a tumor while delivering highly concentrated beams of radiation from multiple positions and angles.

Cyber Knife is painless – there are no incisions, blood loss, or recovery times. In fact, patients go home the same day and usually go about their normal routine. You can expect:

During treatment, patients lie on a bed as a robot arm moves around the body, delivering targeted treatment at multiple angles. While conventional radiation therapy requires 20 to 40 treatments, the Cyber Knife System requires only 1 to 5 treatments. Depending upon the location of the lesion or tumor, different parts of the body will be comfortably held in place. Slight shifts in position during the course of treatment will automatically be noted by the cameras – ensuring accuracy of the target during the radiation treatment. Your treatment team will be in a separate room during treatment, but you will be able to communicate with them at all times.

Each treatment is planned and delivered by a Cyber Knife trained physician team—a radiation oncologist and a surgeon. Patients also benefit from the care of award-winning Magnet nurses and a team of dedicated professionals all working towards the same goal—taking care of the person, not just the cancer.

Listen to Doug Hague’s experience with Cyber Knife at Booker Cancer Center.

Read more about the patient treatment process.

Watch Cyber Knife at work on different types of lesions or tumors.

Learn more about how Cyber Knife compares to other radiotherapy or radiosurgery options.

As Seen On WABC-TV: On Call with Dr. Jay Adlersberg features Riverview’s Cyber Knife Center