In its continuing mission to expand and
improve treatment options for patients
with breast cancer, Winthrop-University
Hospital recently launched an IRBapproved
clinical trial that utilizes the
powerful and highly precise CyberKnife®
Radiosurgery system as a follow-up to
lumpectomy, in select women with
breast cancer who desire breast conservation
after resection of their breast tumor.
Winthrop was the very first hospital
in the New York Metropolitan Area to
acquire the state-of-the-art Cyber Knife
system that has already given new hope
to many thousands of people with
tumors and lesions once considered
inoperable, and is a global leader in its
use and in the training
of physicians to
use CyberKnife.
Since its development
in the 1990's,
CyberKnife has
become the treatment
of choice for
many prostate cancer
patients due to
its high success rate
and lower incidence of side effects than
other treatment options.
 
Jonathan Haas, MD & Janna Andrews, MD
With high-tech, cruise-missileguidance
technology and ultra-flexible,
computer-controlled robotics, CyberKnife
delivers precisely targeted radiation to
tumors. Extraordi -
narily accurate, the
radiation beams can
be sculpted to reach
small, deeply imbedded,
complex masses
minimizing damage
to healthy tissue
when compared to
other types of radiation
therapy.
CyberKnife takes only five days of consecutive
treatments of one hour or less, as
compared to the four to seven weeks of
daily treatments with conventional radiation
therapy, and is favored for appropriate
cases due to the greatly reduced impact on
surrounding tissue thanks to its highly precise
radiation beams.
Eligibility for this innovative breast
cancer clinical trial must be determined in
consultation with the study's Principal
Investigator, Jonathan Haas, MD, Chief
of the Division of Radiation Oncology at
Winthrop, or Janna Andrews, MD,
Attending Physician in the Division of
Radiation Oncology. Among other things,
criteria for inclusion of this study include:
- Patient age of 45 years old or more
- Breast tumor of three cm or less in
one breast only
- No lymph node involvement
- Clear margins following lumpectomy
- No prosthetic breast augmentation
in place (no breast implants;
however patients who have had
implants removed may be eligible)
- CyberKnife treatment must be
approved and initiated within seven
weeks of lumpectomy or the last
chemotherapy treatment
If you or someone you know is
interested in the CyberKnife Breast
Cancer Clinical Trial, please call 1-866-
WINTHROP. Financial assistance may
be available.
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Vol. 21, No. 1
Winter/Spring 2011
Back to Publications
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