CyberKnife® radiosurgery represents a biologically potent intervention against HCC that may be employed as an aggressive “bridge treatment” to patients awaiting liver transplantation. It may be used alone, or in combination with other therapies, such as the infusion of chemotherapeutic agents (16 ,21-23).
Due to it’s very sharp therapeutic margin, CyberKnife® radiosurgery will typically have less effect on adjacent sensitive tissues compared with other radiotherapeutic approaches, causing less potential impairment of surgical tissue healing at the subsequent resection or transplantation procedure. CyberKnife® radiosurgery is also capable of covering large, irregular lesions well, potentially providing a more complete treatment of complex tumors compared with radiofrequency ablation or other non-surgical ablative therapies. These tumor coverage and margin control characteristics would appear to make CyberKnife® a very reasonable “bridge treatment” for HCC patients awaiting their definitive procedure.
HCC (indicated by arrow)
Before CyberKnife® Treatment
Five Months after CyberKnife® Treatment.
Images adapted from:
"Robotic Radiosurgery" - First Edition
Written by Donald B. Fuller, M.D. – Radiation Oncologist