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August 24, 2006
By Stephanie Stricklen, KGW Staff
A Vancouver hospital is showing off some Star Trek-like technology that it says will save lives. We headed to Southwest Washington Medical Center where doctors debuted a device that they say is the only one like it between Seattle and San Francisco.
It's called the CyberKnife and was actually inspired by the original Star Trek. It works by delivering high doses of radiation to tumors anywhere in the body.
"This device is so much more versatile. It can treat different tumors in different locations and different places next to very critical structures; things that are very, very important," said Neurosurgeon Dr. Ashok Modha.
A somewhat flexible, custom molded mask holds a person's head and is a better alternative to older technology that requires drilling a brace into a person's skull. This next generation machine also uses X-ray to provide immediate data which allows a huge robotic arm to account for any subtle movements of patients undergoing treatment-- even as they breathe-- pinpointing the radiation so accurately the error margin is less than the width of a dime.
"It spares all the normal tissue around it," Modha said.
Patient Joan Miller is a perfect example of how the CyberKnife is supposed to work allowing people to quickly get back to the normal daily routine.
"I had a pituitary tumor... what they call an adenoma," she said.
Initially, Miller had two previous and problematic surgeries to remove that tumor on her pituitary gland losing her sense of taste and smell and spending time in the Intensive Care Unit.
And then another blow came when doctors found they just couldn't safely remove all of the tumor. But, they thought the CyberKnife could seek out what the scalpels could not. Four weeks ago she had the treatment.
"I went in at 8. I was out at 10. I took a short nap and went out to dinner with a bunch of friends that evening and I had a slight headache the next day and I've been fine ever since,” said Miller, who gets her results this week and said she's feeling great.
Doctors we interviewed say the CyberKnife typically has fewer side effects than standard radiation treatment because only the tumor gets targeted.
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