| The CyberKnife Centers of San Diego's physics team has experience treating hundreds of CyberKnife patients in locations throughout the body. The physics team works closely with other members of the treatment team, including radiation oncologists, surgeons and radiation therapists, to assure the highest quality treatment process for all patients. Physics supports many different components of the CyberKnife treatment process, including image fusion, treatment planning and quality assurance testing of the machine and its components.
All CyberKnife patients receive a computed tomography (CT) scan as the basis for treatment planning, treatment delivery and real-time patient tracking. Additional imaging modalities are often employed to improve the target identification by the physicians. In these instances, a member of the physics team will fuse MRI or PET images to the base CT scan.
After the target volume has been delineated, the physicist develops a treatment plan to deliver the dose prescribed by the radiation oncologist. This is accomplished using up to two or three hundred small-diameter radiation beams directed to the patient from many locations around the room. By adjusting the individual radiation beam intensities, even turning different combinations of beams on and off, the physicist uses the CyberKnife treatment planning system to shape the dose distribution to precisely cover the three-dimensional treatment region while minimizing the dose to nearby sensitive organs and structures.
A quality assurance program is maintained by the physics staff to ensure that the CyberKnife system is delivering radiation with sub-millimeter accuracy. The complex and unique combination of equipment components, including linear accelerator, robot, diagnostic imaging system and treatment couch, requires a highly specialized set of testing procedures that are performed at daily, weekly, monthly and annual intervals.
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