Cyber Knife

Cyber Knife

The Cyberknife installation is a world-leading facility in the nuclear medicine treatment of Cancer. CyberKnife is the very latest in radiotherapy technology. The Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham is one of the few NHS Trusts to install the latest model of CyberKnife – it allows the Trust to deliver the latest in stereotactic radiotherapy. The CyberKnife works with fully automated radiotherapy “knife” head and can have static or articulated patient bed support. The CyberKnife has X-ray cameras that monitor the position of the tumour and sensors that monitor the patient’s breathing. This enables the robot to reposition the radiotherapy beam during treatment in order to minimise damage to healthy tissue. CyberKnife moves with the patient’s breathing and can track a moving tumour. This ability to target pinpoint accuracy, allows the CyberKnife to administer larger fractions (doses) of radiotherapy, meaning that the patient requires fewer hospital visits. For example, visits for lung cancer patients could be reduced from 30 to three; for prostate cancer patients visits could potentially be reduced from 37 to five and visits for palliative radiotherapy could be reduced from ten to one.
Completed: DECEMBER 2013
Project Value: £ 2,000,000.00