London’s Harley Street Clinic, one of the UK’s foremost centres for cancer medicine, has now taken delivery of the revolutionary CyberKnife cancer treatment machine ? the first one of it kind in Britain.
Testing and training is taking place, with the first patient likely to be treated in mid February 2009.
The CyberKnife is effectively a compact linear accelerator mounted on the so- called futuristic ?Picasso’ robot and can treat tumours more accurately than before.
The Harley Street Clinic, one of HCA International’s six acute hospitals in the Capital, has teamed up with London’s leading cancer experts to create a new world class treatment centre in the heart of London’s medical district.
The machine is part of a ?15 million development programme for The Harley Street Clinic complex and is based at 81 Harley Street at the world renowned Cancer Centre. The CyberKnife works in conjunction with CT cancer mapping technology and calculates how much radiotherapy a tumour needs to destroy all cancer cells without harming surrounding tissue.
Having mapped the tumour in 3D, a patient will lie on a bed with the robotic accelerator delivering radiotherapy doses from many directions all around the body. A separate camera monitors the effectiveness of the operation and works with the robotic arm so that the arm moves with the movement of the patient’s breathing – ensuring an accuracy of delivery never achieved before.
Cyberknife can treat tumours that were previously very difficult and sometimes dangerous, to treat with direct radiotherapy ? such as cancer of the spine. By targeting the tumour from all around the body and from many different angles, the correct dose can be delivered without damaging the spinal cord.
Apollo Hospitals in India expects to invest about Rs 80 crore in acquiring two CyberKnife ? a robotic radio surgery system. Addressing a press conference after setting up the first CyberKnife facility in Chennai, Dr Prathap C. Reddy, Executive Chairman, Apollo Hospitals Group, said the company plans to set up two more robotic radio surgery systems in two cities but the locations are yet to be decided.
Source: Harley Street Clinic, UK