The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : The CyberKnife experience

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Friday, Jun 19, 2009
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

The CyberKnife experience

Staff Reporter

— Photo: R.Ragu

A patient speaks at a meet on CyberKnife technology at the Apollo Speciality Hospital in Chennai on Wednesday.

CHENNAI: Patients who had benefited from the cutting-edge CyberKnife technology interacted with the media and talked about their personal experience at the Apollo Speciality Hospital here on Wednesday. Eighty-six-year old C.V. Govindaraj, whose nasal tumour was completely cured, said, “They gave me another life. I feel younger.”

CyberKnife is a precision, non-invasive, robotic radio-surgery equipment, and the Apollo Hospital in Chennai is the only facility in India with the technology.

“Over 50 patients with intracranial, spine, lung and prostate tumours have benefited from the Apollo CyberKnife treatment and the results are very promising. Many of the patients had tumours that would have been considered inoperable or even untreatable,” said Dr. Janos Stumpf, director research in oncology.

The advanced technology behind CyberKnife uses real-time image guidance technology and computer-controlled robotics to deliver an extremely precise dose of radiation to targets, avoiding the surrounding healthy tissue and adjusting for patient and tumour movement during treatment.

“Surrounding cells are affected by just two-thirds of the radiation dosage required to treat cancerous cells. Tricky surgeries which require high precision can now be carried out with the help of CyberKnife and it doesn’t cause too many side-effects,” said Dr. Sanjay Chandrasekar, senior consultant, radiation oncology.

The treatment does not require anaesthesia.

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