Comparison with Other Treatments
Radiosurgery allows non-invasive treatment of benign and malignant tumors. It is also known as stereotactic radiotherapy, (SRT) when used to target lesions in the brain, and stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) when used to target lesions in the body. Below are common radiosurgery system used world-wide, however there are differences between systems which impact treatment technique.
CyberKnife® | GammaKnife | Other Linac Systems | |
Yes | Yes | No | |
Area treatable with Radiosurgical Precision | Entire Body | Brain and Skull | Varies depending upon specific system |
Rigid Brain (Surgical Halo) or Body Frame Required |
No | Yes | Yes |
Lesion Size Limitation | No | Yes | No |
Capable of preserving adjacent tissues by dividing treatments | Yes | No | Yes |
Capable of tracking lesion in real time to follow motion caused by organ movement and breathing with radiosurgical precision | Yes | N/A | No |
Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) Dosimetry Method | Yes | No | Yes |
Image-Guided Radiation Therapy (IGRT) Set-up Visualization | Yes | No | Yes |
Capable of conformally and homogeneously treating a non-spherical target volume > 3.5cm | Yes | No | Yes |
Capable of fractionated (multi-session) radiosurgery to better preserve critical adjacent tissue | Yes | No | Yes |
Continuously adapts to lesion motion caused by breathing (real time respiratory tracking) | Yes | N/A | Respiratory gating but does not track with radiosurgical precision |
Capable of real-time sub-millimeter translational and rotational beam adaptation to target volume motion | Yes | N/A | No |