Gamma Knife vs CyberKnife
Gamma Knife is the established gold-standard for stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) treatment of brain disorders. With more than 800,000 cased treated worldwide, it sets the bar against which other radiosurgery technologies are measured.
Consider the following differences:
Gamma Knife PerfexionTM |
CyberKnife |
- 192 source cobalt unit designed exclusively for non-invasive brain radiosurgery
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- Single source linear accelerator with robotic arm to compensate for patient movement during treatment; not exclusively used for intracranial SRS
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- Radiologic accuracy better than 0.5mm
- Average level of radiologic accuracy is 0.15mm*
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- 1mm accuracy; dose outside the target area is 2-6x greater than with GK
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- Rigid immobilization to prevent head movement using a lightweight stereotactic head frame fixed to the outer skull
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- Non-rigid immobilization reduces head movement by using a thermoplastic face mask that is
fixed to the table during treatment
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- Provides exact MR and CT correlation from planning to treatment delivery in 3D
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- Provides relative MR and CT correlation from planning to treatment delivery in 3D. The
CK is inherently less accurate since the positioning is optically guided, not head-frame based.
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- Treatment is delivered in a one session; usually done in a single day
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- Single or multiple treatments; possibly over a period of days
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- Target position is confirmed 10 times per second
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- Target position confirmed once every 10 seconds
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*In intracranial radiosurgery, clinical accuracy is the sum of accuracy contributions that make up the entire treatment procedure-imaging, dose planning, patient positioning, and radiosurgical and mechanical accuracy. A study of 189 installed systems, based on 332 commissioning protocols, provide an average radiologic accuracy of 0.15mm. The entire Profexion system comprises of the least possible number of moveable components in order to deliver unsurpassed accuracy. From a clinical standpoint, Gamma Knife has the longest track record of intracranial patients with both long and short-term results.