CyberKnife, the novel whole body radio surgery system has made a quantum leap across many cancer healthcare providers in the developed world. The future demand is expected from the fast growing economies of China, India and South America.

With the demand for cost-effective technologies to treat cancer on the rise, CyberKnife is expected to fit the slot going by its economies-of-scale when compared to conventional surgeries, stated Dr John R Adler, professor of neurology and radiation oncology, Stanford University School of Medicine and inventor of CyberKnife.

Dr Adler who was in Bangalore for the launch of CyberKnife at HealthCare Global Enterprises (HCG) told Pharmabiz that the invention has offered patients the much-needed relief for the treatment of tumour and lesions which are untreatable with existing technology. "Therefore even the liquidity crunch could sway over the orders for CyberKnife because of its cost-effective feature. Compared to chemotherapy and open surgery, this radio surgery system has shown to have better outcomes," he added.

Over 160 CyberKnife machines manufactured by Accuray Inc a Nasdaq listed start-up owned by Dr Adler are installed at cancer hospitals across the world.

Accuray has been able to manufacture two Cyber Knifes a week which amounts to a little over 40 machines annually. The biggest advantage of CyberKnife is the ability to treat the tumours and lesions anywhere in the body including brain, spine, lung, liver, pancreas and prostrate.

In fact, the invention came in at a time when surgical intervention for cancer was proving to have its limitations. The concept of minimally invasive surgery supported with the critical information provided by MRI, PET and CT technologies has revolutionized cancer treatment, he said.

CyberKnife uses sophisticated robotics and has an advanced real-time image guidance to target tumours and abnormal tangles of blood vessels accurately to deliver the right intense dosage of radiation. This helps to reduce treatment duration from five weeks to five days, with nil or minimal side effects.

Accuray Inc which was incepted in 1992 went though Federal Government funds and infusion from venture capitalists. CyberKnife was developed in 1993. Between 1994 and 1999, it underwent Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) for a clinical study to collect safety and effectiveness data for USFDA approval. The product holds over a 1,000 patents.

According to Dr Adler, in current medical research scenario, the translational research efforts are under funded compared to basic research. This will stall many of the breakthrough inventions expected to take off in US Universities.