New procedure cures prostate cancer in 5 days
Story By: Bea Karnes
Source: NBC
Prostate cancer patients now have a new treatment option that can treat them in just five days. It's called the Cyberknife, and it's a non-invasive way to combine surgery and radiation.
Clayton Twigg is one of the first patients to have this state-of-the-art robot cure his prostate cancer. "It was easy. The hard part was trying to lay still for 90 minutes," Twigg said after the procedure.
The device is so advanced it wouldn't matter if he moved. "With this type of technology we can now target tumors that move when we breath such as our lungs or liver, kidneys or prostate," explained Dr. Lee Ponsky.
A physics team maps where nearly 300 beams of radiation will enter and exit Clayton's prostate. Dr. Douglas Einstein is on that team. "It allows us to conform the radiation dose exquisitely to the prostate and minimize side effects to organs next to the prostate like the rectum or the bladder," Einstein said. "We do run a risk of damaging the tissue outside the prostate as well but because the accuracy is less than one millimeter accuracy we feel that risk is lower."
Even though this is the latest FDA-approved treatment for prostate cancer, University Hospitals is trying to find out if it can cure cancer faster and cause fewer side effects. The Cyberknife can be used for several different solid tumors around the body. It may also help certain patients that are not candidates for surgery.
The Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute is the first place to use the cyberknife. The Cleveland Clinic is one of the best hospitals in the country.
