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A Robotic Cyberknife To Fight Cancer
Roland Piquepaille writes "The Cyberknife is not a real knife. This is a robot radiotherapy machine which works with great accuracy during treatment, thanks to its robotic arm which moves around a patient when he breathes. According to BBC News, the first Cyberknife will be operational in February 2009 in London, UK. But other machines have been installed in more than 15 countries, and have permitted doctors to treat 50,000 patients in the first semester of 2008. And the Cyberknife is more efficient than conventional radiotherapy devices. The current systems require twenty or more short sessions with low-dose radiation. On the contrary, and because it's extremely precise, a Cyberknife can deliver powerful radiation in just three sessions."
not the cure for cancer (prevention > treatment), but this sure looks like an improvement in treatment
first post?
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
This forwards my idea that there is no holy grail-esque "cure to cancer." Instead therapies and treatments will continue to advance, and increase the survivability of cancer. This cyberknife, if I understand the procedure correctly, uses high intensity focused gamma rays to destroy cancer cells. I could go into detail... but wikipedia would be easier to go to, and more accurate. In any case, the cure for cancer is a technological journey, not a magical vial of fluorescent green liquid.
If our elected representatives no longer represent us, do we still live in a Democracy?
You're right, this isn't really news to anyone outside of the UK, and the fact other countries have it first is not news to those inside the UK.
We have a very long process of testing drugs (and machines), so advances in technology can hit the UK 5-8 years behind others.
Plans are underway to speed up this process, and damn right when you consider France and Germany both have these machines, and yet we all belong to something called the EU.
The real news os that it's been approved for use in England.
But even in the USA, it's not like it's routine. It's not like you can get your health insurance to cover it no questions asked.
It's not a panacea either.
To my knowledge, in the USA it's primarily used for lung and liver tumors, and not even for first-line treatment, but for metastasis.
Shows some promise, but cancer treatment doesn't move as fast as you think.
Expanding a vast wasteland since 1996.
You're assuming they're competing and not colluding.
Only three things are certain; death, taxes, and apocryphal quotations - Ben Franklin.
Only nineteen years after the first installation of a Cyberknife English cancer patients don't have to take a plane to the US to get treatment?
Well all hail the National Health Service!
I wonder how important you'll have to be for the NHS to pop for Cyberknife treatment at a private clinic? Prime minister? PM's mum? Head of the PM's security detail? Cousin of an MP?
But maybe England's one of those places where those with political influence don't use it to save the lives of those closest to them. A place where noble dedication to the public good is the norm and prevents elected officials from taking advantage of the privileges of office for personal benefit at the expense of the public.
Naw, that's just stupid. Of course there's corruption of the system. The only questions are; how extensive it is and whether the news media sees fit to investigate and report.
Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum, minutus carborata descendum pantorum.