Mar 28, 2007 10:33 pm US/Eastern
Robotic Surgery Offers New Hope To Cancer Patients
by Dr. Mallika Marshall
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
A robot is offering new hope to cancer patients and changing the prognosis from "inoperable" to "treatable." The "Cyberknife" is one of a kind, and it's the only one in Massachusetts.
51-year-old Jan Silvia from Holbrook hopes that this is a life-saving day.
"I have pancreatic cancer," he said.
Despite two operations, radiation and chemo his cancer is back.
"I'm running out of options," he said.
He's hoping "Cyberknife" treatment at Beth Israel Deaconess will save him.
The "Cyberknife" attacks tumors using high dose radiation with pinpoint precision never possible before. Tiny gold "seeds" are implanted in the tumor. The robotic arm "locks" onto the seeds to target the cancer. If you watch carefully you can also see that the computer driven device constantly makes minute adjustments.
"As Jan is moving and is breathing, the tumor moves up and down with the motions of his respirations and the robot actually moves along with the breathing, moves along with the target," said Dr. Anand Mahadevan of Beth Israel Deconess.
That means the radiation hits only the tumor sparing healthy tissue.
Since the "Cyberknife" delivers five or six times the amount of radiation used in traditional therapy, it's very effective in killing cancer cells and treatments are faster.
"Jan's original treatment took six weeks and the same treatment using this technology can be done from one to three days," Mahadevan said.
Jan completed his "Cyberknife" treatment at the end of last week and tells us his pain has already decreased dramatically. He'll know how the radiation has affected his cancer in about a month.
Some insurance companies cover these kinds of treatments. Jan has Blue Cross, and, at first, the insurer denied his coverage, but Jan appealed, and has gotten word that he's now covered.
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