CyberKnife for treating breast cancer plays a crucial part in sparing damage to vital nearby organs such as your heart & lungs, especially when treating left-sided breast cancer.
It’s important to know your options when it comes to radiation therapy and which type of radiation treatment is best at sparing damage to nearby healthy breast tissues and organs.
Many breast cancer patients need to undergo a combination of treatments which can include chemotherapy, hormone therapy, targeted therapy, surgery and radiation.
CyberKnife is an advanced form of radiation therapy that’s noninvasive and precisely targets your tumor delivering the highest dose possible of radiation from hundreds of beams and hundreds of different angels to kill the cancer cells.
This technology also greatly reduces the number of radiation sessions needed down to 5 in 5 days compared to 15 treatments or more, over several weeks or months with other types of radiation.
The CyberKnife beams also target and lock down onto the tumor and follows it as you breath naturally, again sparing nearby healthy breast tissue and organs from being hit with radiation. This in turn greatly reduces the risk of damaging side effects and complications compared to conventional radiation.
This is especially important in left-sided breast cancer, as the cancer is close to critical organs such as the heart and the lungs.
According to research published in medical journal JAMA Internal Medicine, women who have received breast cancer radiation therapy via x-rays face a 0.5% to 3.5% higher risk for heart attack or other cardiovascular issues.
The risk is highest among women who’ve had conventional radiation to the left breast because of the target’s close proximity to the heart.
A European study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that the harmful cardiovascular effects typically begin to emerge as soon as 5 years after cancer radiation treatment.
With CyberKnife Stereotactic Body Radiosurgery Treatment (SBRT) for breast cancer there is no radiation to the heart or lungs compared to the older standard types of radiation still used today at many medical facilities.
Furthermore, over the last 10 plus years, clinical research done by UT Southwestern Medical Center found excellent treatment and cosmetic results for partial breast radiation following treatment with CyberKnife Therapy.
For Left-sided Breast Cancer patients, CyberKnife could be key to a healthier life after treatment.
To learn more talk to our breast cancer experts at the CyberKnife Center of Miami 305-279-2900 & go to our website now www.cyberknifemiami.com