Morse CyberKnife: The Cancer Fighting Robot
July 8, 2008
Miami, FL (WiredPRNews.com) — It looks like a doomsday device constructed by some evil genius in a cliché movie plot. A ray-gun sits dormant atop a robotic frame, serving as the head of a sleeping futuristic looking one-eyed robot. But this device from the future is not meant to fulfill the world-domination fantasies of Dr. Evil; it is one of the latest and most technologically advanced pieces of equipment available in the medical field. It is CyberKnife: a robotic cancer fighting machine, and one of the latest additions in modern medicine’s anti-cancer arsenal.
What makes this modern marvel so marvelous?
It provides a viable, non-invasive treatment for all shapes and sizes of cancerous tumors using accurately pinpointed beams of radiation. Not only that, but unlike painful surgery, chemotherapy and conventional radiation treatment, the use of CyberKnife is considered an outpatient procedure.
The patient lies quietly in normal street clothes while the futuristic looking device hovers around upon its pivots and joints to do its job - this under the watchful eye of a doctor who monitors a computer screen nearby. The procedure lasts 30-75 minutes, and the patient is done. No hospitalization is required, and the only reported side-effect of the treatment is a short-lived mild fatigue. Patients are able to return to their normal daily activity immediately upon receiving treatment.
Another advantage of the CyberKnife is that it can accurately move in accordance with the patient’s body. Unlike its cousin and predecessor, the Gamma Knife, the CyberKnife does not require a medieval looking head stabilization device to lock the patient’s head in place while the rays are manually adjusted. The CyberKnife can track moving organs that happen to be piggybacking tumors and provide live feedback to the doctor. This robot has found a fantastic and interesting application in treating lung-cancer, in that the device is able to concentrate the radiation beam on a particular spot and move about it from all directions while the patient’s lungs are expanding and contracting (all this while accurately sending radiation only to the cancerous spot without harming healthy tissue).
Since its approval by the FDA in 2001, CyberKnife has been used in conjunction with other cancer treatments as well as on its own. Though the device is priced at a whopping $4 Million per machine, it is slowly creeping into hospitals, research centers and clinics throughout the world. It is offering a viable alternative to surgery and hope to those who have tumors/lesions where it is not possible to operate surgically. With CyberKnife’s versatile yet accurate radiation dose delivery system, it is safe to say that CyberKnife has a promising future in humanity’s fight against cancer.
Cyberknife Treatment now offered by: Morse CyberKnife Centers Florida. Treatment centers in Miami, Tampa Bay and West Palm Beach.
CyberKnife Center of Miami, Palm Beach are operated and managed by Morse LLC. CyberKnife Center of Tampa Bay is operated and managed by Tampa Bay Radiosurgery Associates, LLC.
| CyberKnife Center of Miami7867 North Kendall Drive, Suite 105
Miami, Florida 33156 Phone: 305-279-2900 Toll Free: 800-204-0455 Fax: 305-279-1415 |
CyberKnife Center of Palm Beach
10335 North Military Trail, Suite B Palm Beach Gardens, Florida 33410 Phone: (561) 799-2828 Toll Free: (877) 330-3339 Fax: (561) 775-3788 |
CyberKnife Center of Tampa Bay
5935 Webb Road Tampa, Florida 33615 Phone: 813-884-7400 |
