Is CyberKnife Ready for Prime Time in Prostate Cancer?
Associated Press
A fancy new device adds a novel twist to an existing treatment. It seems like a good idea, but there’s not enough evidence to know for sure. It’s one of the classic stories of modern medicine, told about one device after another.
This morning’s Washington Post tells the tale of prostate cancer and CyberKnife, a $4 million machine designed to deliver high-dose, targeted radiation to kill tumors. Some hospitals that initially used the machine for brain and spinal tumors difficult to treat any other way are now using it to treat prostate cancer, which can be well treated by more conventional methods.
“This is really pushing the envelope,” Anthony L. Zietman, president-elect of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ASTRO) told the Post. “It might be as good and more convenient. It may be better and more convenient. But it could turn out to be a disaster. No one knows.”
Prostate cancer patients treated with the machine receive five, high-dose radiation treatments rather than the 40, lower-dose treatments given in conventional therapy. Accuray, the company that sells the machine, says more than 2,000 prostate cancer patients have been treated with the machine, which works at least as well as standard […]
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