CyberKnife Center Adds New System to Speed Up, Improve Treatment; Third Center Nationwide to Install $400,000 Synchrony System.

MIAMI -- Since January, the CyberKnife Center of Miami has offered unique treatments for tumors and cancer in the upper and lower body, but there was a catch - patients had to periodically hold their breath. With the recent installation of a new system, called Synchrony, that requirement is eliminated and body treatments will be faster and more accurate.

Using a robotic arm and missile guidance technology, CyberKnife delivers targeted doses of radiation to often inoperable tumors with sub-millimeter accuracy. Miami is only the third U.S. city to have the $400,000 Synchrony System, which not only helps patients who have problems holding their breath but all patients with upper and lower body tumors and cancer.

"The average CyberKnife session lasts 90 minutes, but with Synchrony this time can be cut in half," said Dr. James Schwade, executive director of the CyberKnife Center of Miami. "Synchrony permits higher doses of radiation to be used, and this leads to the effective ablation of tumors and a higher success rate."

When patients have body treatments, they are required to hold their breath for short periods of time, to assist the system in targeting the tumor as accurately as possible. This slows procedure times, but more importantly, some patients have trouble holding their breath due to their ailments.

The Synchrony System, unlike other traditional radiation systems, simultaneously tracks both the movement of the tumor and breathing patterns of the patient. Then, the robotic arm adjusts and compensates for these movements - ensuring more accurate treatment and eliminating the breath-holding requirement. Synchrony precisely tracks tumors near the lungs, heart and soft tissue areas that are susceptible to breathing movements. Patients with lung, breast, bladder, pancreas, liver, prostate, gynecological and other soft tissue tumors can now be treated effectively and in less time.

"The CyberKnife can customarily treat in a single session or up to five sessions, depending on the size of the tumor and its location," said Maria Freed, the center's administrator. "Now with Synchrony, those sessions are shorter, patients are not fatigued from having to hold their breath and they get to go home sooner."

More than 7,000 patients worldwide have been treated by the CyberKnife stereotactic radiosurgery system at 16 centers worldwide. Developed by a Stanford University neurosurgeon, it is the only robotic image-guided radiation system that enables the precise targeting and treatment of tumors anywhere in the body. The CyberKnife Center of Miami is an independent, free-standing center and is open to select community physicians who have been trained and credentialed in CyberKnife radiosurgery. The Center offers radiosurgery with the CyberKnife on an outpatient basis and is the first program in the southeast United States and the State of Florida. For more information, call 800-204-0455 or visit http://www.cyberknifemiami.com.