Cyberknife

My husband was originally diagnosed with RCC Stage 1V in July 2001.  He had a bone tumor removed from his left forearm and an allograft was done replacing about 4 inches of bone.  He had a right nephrectomy in Aug 2001.  We prayed and took nothing offered which was only Interferon and Interlukin as they were both so toxic.  Instead we started taking IP-6 and Graviola, both natural and prayed that if we ever needed something more advances would be made.  They have.  He was diagnosed with inoperable brain tumors in his brain stem and in the pons, both lethal.  Whole brain radiation was recommended or else he would die in 3 weeks.  We then saw on the internet that this does not work for RCC that it only gave additional time but not much and damaged good tissue in the brain.  We got a 2nd opinion and found what we call Miracle Technology.  CyberKnife.  It is sterotactic radiation that zaps the tumor without real surgery.  It is used for inoperable tumors any where except the tongue or bowel.  The tumor must be less than 3 cm in size.  We zapped on last Tuesday and it was easier than taking an aspirin.  We are scheduled to zap the 2nd one next Tuesday.  No significant side effects.  We are over joyed and want to spread the news.  This is new technology which does not harm good cells and is targeted to shoot only the tumor.  Praise God we hope that this can help you also.

Susan

Dear Susan..I had 8 cancer tumors removed from my body in the last year.  I was told I was cancer free in July. Then today I was told I had small tumors in my chest and adomen which not all were operable. Do you think the cyberknife would work on the ones in my chest..They are very small but there are 4 or 5 of them.  Also the lining of my adomen has a few.  I am from New York..but go to Florida in the winter hopefully..where are these hospitals located that do cyberknife...Thanks Sharon13

Hi Sharon, first let me say how sorry I am that you are fighting this disease.  Prayer gives us hope and we then feel that we are led by God on what to do.  I believe that the answer to your question would be YES on the chest.   There are 3 centers in NY:

CyberKnife Center of New York
Wilson Square
30 Harrison Street
Johnson City, NY, USA, 13790
Tel: (607) 763-6666
or Tel: (866) 751-1327

Hematology Oncology Associates
5008 Brittonfield Parkway
Suite 700
East Syracuse, NY, USA, 13057
Tel: (315) 472-7504

Winthrop-University Hospital
259 First Street
Mineola, NY, USA, 11501
Tel: 1-866-WINTHROP

Not sure if any of these would be close to you, but there are also 8 centers in Florida.  You can find out more by going to the CyberKnife web sites, just search through GOOGLE by entering CyberKnife and you will see lots of different sites. 

You may have some challenges with insurance paying.  Our insurance company would only pay for this procedure in the brain but the CyberKnife can be used any where in the body except the bowel and the tongue.

If the type of cancer that you have is Renal Cell, you may also want to try SUTENT.  My husband is on his 9th day and this drug is the most successful now, one pill a day for 28 days and then off of it for 14 days.  So far his side effects have been very minimal and tolerable.  We are praying that this will stop the growth or shrink the 8 abnormalities they see in his pancreas.  Some folks have been very successful with this new drug.

I'll be praying for you.  In God's Hands - Susan B

 

On 10/30/2007 Subob wrote:

Hi Sharon, first let me say how sorry I am that you are fighting this disease.  Prayer gives us hope and we then feel that we are led by God on what to do.  I believe that the answer to your question would be YES on the chest.   There are 3 centers in NY:

CyberKnife Center of New York
Wilson Square
30 Harrison Street
Johnson City, NY, USA, 13790
Tel: (607) 763-6666
or Tel: (866) 751-1327

Hematology Oncology Associates
5008 Brittonfield Parkway
Suite 700
East Syracuse, NY, USA, 13057
Tel: (315) 472-7504

Winthrop-University Hospital
259 First Street
Mineola, NY, USA, 11501
Tel: 1-866-WINTHROP

Not sure if any of these would be close to you, but there are also 8 centers in Florida.  You can find out more by going to the CyberKnife web sites, just search through GOOGLE by entering CyberKnife and you will see lots of different sites. 

You may have some challenges with insurance paying.  Our insurance company would only pay for this procedure in the brain but the CyberKnife can be used any where in the body except the bowel and the tongue.

If the type of cancer that you have is Renal Cell, you may also want to try SUTENT.  My husband is on his 9th day and this drug is the most successful now, one pill a day for 28 days and then off of it for 14 days.  So far his side effects have been very minimal and tolerable.  We are praying that this will stop the growth or shrink the 8 abnormalities they see in his pancreas.  Some folks have been very successful with this new drug.

I'll be praying for you.  In God's Hands - Susan B

Susan..thanks for your reply..Why is your husband on sutent if the cyberknife can get the tumors?  I was on sutent for 11 days and could not take the side effects..so I had 7 tumors removed surgerically..but the ones in my chest that just appeared recently cannot be taken out and I do not want to go on sutent again.  I contacted the Miami cyberknife facility and am waiting for a reply.  Thanks for alerting me to this new technique.  I wonder why more people don't talk about it on the message board.that makes me a little doubtful just how good the cyberknife works.  Good luck with the sutent and hopefully it works for him..They say different medicines work different for each person.  God bless   Sharon 13

Hi Sharon,

The CyberKnife is newer technology and works great.  The main reason you do not hear about it is that insurance companies do not want to pay for it.  But you will be hearing more and more.  If you Google CyberKnife you will see that they pioneered it at Stanford.  Accuray is the name of the company that makes it.  I remember seeing that they use it a lot in the chest area and for prostate.  I also spoke with the PA group and they are doing a lot in the pancreas and are revieing my husbands case.

 My husband has 8 abnormalities in his pancreas that is why we are using Sutent now to try and shrink them or stop them from getting any larger.  We used CyberKnife on the brain mets because Sutent cannot cross the brain/blood barrier.  Since he has so many in his pancreas they cannot really use radiation which is what CyberKnife uses to kill the tumors, there are just too many.  He is on his 10th day of Sutent with no real side effects yet.

I hope that you hear back from Miami soon, if not at least call another location.  In the case of PA, they had me fax the medical reports and a doctor will review them.

In God's Hands - Susan B