Pancreas Cancer
Pancreatic adenocarcinoma remains one of the least curable of all human malignancies. Even with radical pancreaticoduodenectomy (Whipple procedure), cure of this lesion is the exception rather than the rule. Adjuvant or neoadjuvant therapies including both chemotherapy and combined chemotherapy-radiotherapy appear to have improved the cure rate compared with surgery alone. The Cyberknife offers a dynamic option as the radiotherapy aspect of a combined treatment program.
With radiotherapy, it is very challenging to deliver a potentially curative radiation dose to the pancreatic tumor volume, due to its typical close approximation to the stomach, duodenum, small intestine, large intestine, liver, kidneys and spinal cord, and the Cyberknife offers the most precise technology to accurately deliver radiotherapy.
The CyberKnife Synchrony
respiratory tracking system locks onto implanted gold fiducial markers and
correlates their position with the respiratory cycle as determined by optical tracking, to track the targeted lesion with 1.5 mm accuracy throughout the entire breathing cycle, allowing a much smaller applied margin compared with other radiation delivery systems. This gives CyberKnife the distinction of being the only device that currently brings radiosurgical precision to a respiration-induced moving target such as the pancreas.
