CyberKnife System Provides Long-term Disease Control for Prostate Cancer Patients

Accuray Incorporated, the manufacturer of the CyberKnife® Robotic Radiosurgery System, recently announced data from a study which showed that treatment with the CyberKnife System for low and intermediate risk prostate cancer provides excellent long-term results.

The seventeen center study, which was presented last month at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Genitourinary Cancers Symposium (ASCO GU) in Orlando, Florida, found that at five years, the disease-free survival rate for low-risk prostate cancer patients was 100 percent and for intermediate-risk patients was 88.5 percent.  These results were maintained by patients followed for seven years.

The CyberKnife System was designed to deliver stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT), a treatment process enabling the delivery of radiation throughout the body with an extremely high degree of precision.  The system’s unique ability to continually track and automatically correct for movement of the prostate in real-time throughout the entire treatment session provides distinct advantages when treating a tumor which can move as much as 10 mm in as little as 30 seconds.

“Outcomes from this long-term, prospective study reinforce that CyberKnife prostate SBRT is highly effective, with typically minimal side effects and impact on quality of life during and after treatment,” said Donald B. Fuller, MD, at Genesis Healthcare Partners in San Diego, California and lead investigator of the study.  “It is important to note that nearly 90 percent of patients in the study were treated at community facilities across the United States, which may provide reassurance for men with localized prostate cancer that the results are achievable in their community setting.”

At Oklahoma CyberKnife, men diagnosed with prostate cancer are treated with SBRT with CyberKnife.  Hundreds of different angles enable the radiation to be contoured to the shape of the prostate, resulting in treatment aimed directly to the prostate gland, avoiding nearby critical anatomy.  This precision reduces treatment time to just five outpatient visits, compared to the average 40 – 45 visits conventional radiation therapy requires.

To learn more about how Oklahoma CyberKnife treats prostate cancer, please click here.