CyberKnife Information for Physicians

We are committed to working with referring physicians to give your patients an effective treatment option for malignant and benign tumors and lesions.

CyberKnife® is the first system in the world to offer full-body radiosurgery. It can be used to treat tumors and lesions that were formerly inoperable.

CyberKnife is FDA-approved for use throughout the body and offers non-invasive treatment of:

Benign and malignant tumors
Arteriovenous malformations (AVMs)
Functional disorders

See a list of conditions treated by CyberKnife.

The HealthEast CyberKnife Center at St. Joseph's Hospital has been offering CyberKnife treatment since 2003 and was the first in the Upper Midwest to offer this groundbreaking technology.

Find out how to contact us or refer a patient.

Two revolutionary technologies

The CyberKnife system combines two revolutionary technologies — advanced image guidance and robotics. An image guidance system that uses cruise missile technology tracks and verifies the tumor's location. This enables automatic compensation for patient movement during treatment delivery.

A multi-jointed robotic arm with six degrees of freedom provides unmatched maneuverability in targeting tumors. A high-energy x-ray source mounted on the robotic arm precisely locates the position of the tumor in the body and delivers pinpoint radiation from more than 1,200 angles.

Customized treatment plans

CyberKnife allows for customization of each patient's treatment plan. Its flexible arm makes a wider range of treatment plans possible, including either forward or inverse treatment planning. CyberKnife treats tumors and lesions that are unreachable or untreatable with conventional surgery or other stereotactic radiosurgery methods.

Steps in the CyberKnife treatment process vary depending on the area of the body:

Advantages of CyberKnife

CyberKnife technology provides a number of advantages over conventional radiotherapy, including:

Ability to treat multiple tumors at different locations during a single treatment
Focused, maximum radiation to the tumor without affecting surrounding healthy tissue
Treatment for tumors that are inoperable by conventional surgery and other stereotactic radiosurgery methods
Reduction in the risk of complications such as infections, hemorrhage and the loss of hearing/feeling sometimes associated with conventional surgery
Improved patient comfort (no invasive head frame is required)
Procedure is done on an outpatient basis
Treatment is painless and requires no recovery time
Treatment sessions are generally 30 to 90 minutes long
Most conditions can be treated in just one to five treatments

Sub-millimeter accuracy

CyberKnife's accuracy represents a major advance in radiosurgery. Digital radiographic images of anatomical features or implanted fiducials (markers) are used to precisely target the radiation. The focused radiation beams converge at the tumor with sub-millimeter accuracy to maximize the amount of radiation that reaches the tumor and minimize exposure to surrounding healthy tissues.