Accuray, Inc., the maker of the CyberKnife Stereotactic Radiosurgery System, has announced the introduction of Xsight™ Spine Tracking System:
Marking a major advance in non-invasive surgery, Accuray™ has introduced the Xsight™ Spine Tracking System, which integrates with the CyberKnife® Stereotactic Radiosurgery System to eliminate the need for surgical implantation of radiographic markers, or fiducials, in the delivery of radiosurgery treatments for spinal tumors.
Spinal radiosurgery has long posed difficult problems for oncologists and neurosurgeons. Due to the close proximity of sensitive structures like the spinal cord, traditional radiation treatments were not accurate enough. In addition, since skeletal structures such as spinal vertebra move independently, clinicians were required to surgically implant fiducials into the spine in order to track the movement of the lesion during treatment, which introduced some of the drawbacks associated with invasive surgery. Prior to the introduction of the CyberKnife System, patients had few options and little hope for tumors that could not be surgically removed.
The CyberKnife Radiosurgery System is the only system in the world that continually tracks lesions and automatically compensates for their movements throughout the entire treatment. Only the CyberKnife is capable of delivering sub-millimeter total clinical accuracy, now in the spine without fiducials, thus offering unparallel precision and conformality.
“Xsight obviates the need for placement of fiducials and allows for computerized real-time tracking and delivering of radiation with sub-millimeter accuracy. For those wishing to irradiate tumors of the spine this represents a major breakthrough,” remarked Fraser Henderson M.D., Director, Spine Tumor Center, Georgetown University Hospital. Additionally he stated, “This is a significant advance in eliminating pain for the patient and for allowing the surgeon to expedite treatment within the limited therapeutic window.”
More at Accuray…
BTW, they have videos here.
