The CyberKnife, a product of Accuray, is available for the first time in South Carolina as an alternative to surgery and traditional radioactive therapy for cancer patients, or for those with inoperable or surgically complex tumors.

“This delivers a greater dose of radiation through a very highly focused beam,” said

Jacqueline Dioses, director of the Radiation Oncology Department at Roper St. Francis.

The hospital unveiled the new machine in early December and will begin treating patients starting Jan. 16. More than 100 patients from across the state will get radiation treatment from the machine during the next year, the hospital said.

It is the first CyberKnife machine available in South Carolina, and one of 76 operational worldwide.

“The CyberKnife is the latest technology in this discipline known as stereotactic radiosurgery,” said Dr. Curtis Worthington, a neurosurgeon, and medical director of the hospital’s Stereotactic Radiosurgery program of which CyberKnife is a part. 

“That (radiosurgery) specifically is using principles of localization and three-dimensional space to direct individual beams of ionizing radiation at an abnormal area in order to destroy it. It uses a robotic arm to carry that out and also can treat multiple organ systems. In the past, many of the things we’ve used have been only useful in the brain.”

In November, Worthington and other medical professionals went to Baltimore for training on the machine at Sinai Hospital, one of the first U.S. hospitals to adopt the technology.

While only an option for intracranial tumors in the past, the machine allows radiosurgical treatment of tumors in the spine and other organs such as the lung, liver and prostate, he said.

The good news is that the sub-millimeter accuracy of the beam treats tumors while minimizing impact to surrounding healthy tissue and structures such as the spinal cord and optic nerve, Worthington said. That generally means a person will suffer minimal hair loss compared to normal radiation treatments where lower doses of radiation target a larger area surrounding the tumor.

Still, Dioses said, “not every patient is going to be a CyberKnife candidate.” Surgery and traditional radiation will still be the best option for some cancer patients, and the CyberKnife may work in conjunction with those patients in other cases.

It’s also unclear whether the treatment option is covered by most insurance plans. The hospital will be reimbursed between $10,000 and $15,000 for each treatment, and the patient will be charged a little more than that, she said.

“We don’t turn anybody away,” she said. “We’ll determine whether the person is a candidate and then look at the options.”

The vault that hosts the CyberKnife is as impressive as the massive machine. It was built from 1 million pounds of lead, necessary because of the intensity of the radioactive beams emitted from the machine. The concrete floor is four feet deep, and the door into the room weighs 18,000 pounds. All told, construction of the room cost about $1.5 million, Dioses

said.

Roper St. Francis was only responsible for construction of the hosting room as part of the hospital’s agreement with Accuray.