Wednesday, January 12, 2011

CyberKnife me, please

Well, I've got my answer. The course of treatment I'll get for this "tiny liver lesion" is a form of radiation called the CYBERKNIFE.

From the CyberKnife website:
"The CyberKnife® Robotic Radiosurgery System is a non-invasive alternative to surgery for the treatment of both cancerous and non-cancerous tumors anywhere in the body, including the prostate, lung, brain, spine, liver, pancreas and kidney. The treatment – which delivers beams of high dose radiation to tumors with extreme accuracy – offers new hope to patients worldwide.

Though its name may conjure images of scalpels and surgery, the CyberKnife treatment involves no cutting. In fact, the CyberKnife System is the world’s first and only robotic radiosurgery system designed to treat tumors throughout the body non-invasively. It provides a pain-free, non-surgical option for patients who have inoperable or surgically complex tumors, or who may be looking for an alternative to surgery."

Well, sign me up.

This technology, which I have spent approximately 3 minutes researching, sounds like it's the hot new thing in radiation. I think it started being used in 2009. Instead of a 6-week cycle of treatment, they will zap the f-er in anywhere from 1 to 5 sessions. It has no side effects. It is insanely expensive (and I thought a tiny dose of Avastin costing $10,000 a pop was a lot!), and until very recently, was only available in a few places in the USA. Now there are about 150 of them worldwide, which is still not a lot, but I'm lucky to live down the street from one such place.

Here's where I'll be going:
http://www.seattlecyberknife.com/

But this video makes this thing sound really cool. Look how amazingly they have merged technology into this process:
http://www.seattlecyberknife.com/cyberknife/treatment.html

GEEZO, this post sounds like an ad for Accuray (the maker of the CyberKnife).

My first appointment is Monday, Jan 24th. Not sure when the actual 'Knifing will begin. But whenever it starts, you can be sure to read all about it here. Vicarious Cyberknifing: the next best thing to being there.

5 comments:

  1. Rooting for you!! You can do this!

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  2. Wow. Sounds dreamy compared to chemo or invasive surgery. So glad you have the doctor you do!

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  3. Statistically, January 24th is the " most depressing day of the year" (it's when most people have given up on their resolutions, they've just received their credit card bills from the holidays, and weather is reliably lousy) which I think is a huge positive. This is the least healthy you will be all year, and you are hitting it in the most depressing day. The technology sounds really awesome. (and tumor: your days are numbered, baby), nancy

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  4. i love that it has no side effects. WAHOO! no side effects! And with a name like 'cyberknife', it seems to have the ass-kicking, take names attitude we're looking for in regards to the tumor. I think, before you go on 1/24, you might need to come up with a similarly tough sounding name for yourself. (taking from the Muppets), "how about...EUNIS"? ??

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  5. there is a new treatment for cancer named cyberknife cancer treatment, this method can remove the cancer cell without damaging the good cell

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