WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — September is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, and according to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), approximately one in eight men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime.
Prostate cancer is the second-leading cause of death in American men, behind only lung cancer. About one in 44 men will die of prostate cancer, according to the NCI. But if caught early, prostate cancer is very curable, thanks to different options, including CyberKnife radiation therapy.
CyberKnife is an alternative to cancer surgery and traditional radiation. The technology treats tumors in virtually any area of the body with little damage to healthy tissue.
“It’s a machine that allows us to very precisely allows us to target these tumors with that level of precision that is somewhere in the millimeters. And this allows folks to finish radiation treatment a lot faster and a lot of times a lot more [effectively] than we used to offer with older radiation equipment,” said Dr. Jonathan Lischalk, specialty service director of the Genitourinary Cancer Program at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital.
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At MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, their cancer experts, including Lischalk, specialize in using CyberKnife to treat prostate tumors with exceptional precision in only five treatment sessions. In comparison, conventional prostate radiation therapy can require up to 40 treatments.
The treatment system includes multiple X-ray cameras and software to pinpoint the exact location of the tumor. A robotic arm uses a linear accelerator to aim high-powered beams directly at the tumor from more than 1,400 angles. The beams can be directed even at difficult-to-reach areas of the body.
The beams are precise, focusing solely on the tumor and minimizing doses to healthy surrounding tissue. CyberKnife radiation therapy is commonly used to treat inoperable or complex tumors. It can also be used for many other types of cancers, including lung, pancreatic, kidney, head and neck, metastatic, brain, spine, and skull-base tumors, and breast cancers, among others.
The procedure is non-invasive and does not include anesthesia, incisions, blood loss, or recovery time. There is also no overnight hospitalization. CyberKnife is an outpatient treatment that typically allows you to return home the same day. Treatment also offers much quicker recovery times.
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Patients can get back to their normal life almost immediately, unlike the two-to-four-week recovery period that can be expected following traditional prostate surgery, such as prostatectomy, which is prostate removal.
“It’s kind of a misnomer. CyberKnife doesn’t cause any pain, you don’t see anything, you don’t feel anything. You’re just basically lying on a table 30 minutes later, you get off and drive yourself home. It’s like getting an X-ray,” Lischalk explained.
MedStar Georgetown University Hospital was the first hospital on the East Coast to use the state-of-the-art technology. Their cancer specialists have treated more than 2,400 patients with prostate tumors, making them one of the most effective cancer treatments.
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