Cyberknife?

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Marty36
Marty36 Member Posts: 84
in Head and Neck Cancer #1
So, went to the doctor who never seems to give me good news--my ENT. Latest surgery appears to be successful. Clean margins everywhere. The bad news is that there appears to have been more than one area of cancer in the area they removed. This is after a surgery 8 months ago that took out the primary tumor.

He's talked to my radiological oncologist and the tumor board and they are recommending cyberknife on the tongue since I've already done radiation. There doesn't appear to be a tumor, so this is preventative since another tongue tumor could make surgery more difficult. I'm not finding much information about cyberknife, especially the short- and long-term side effects. It's all pretty overwhelming because it feels like every step forward is followed by two steps back. He was surprised by how well I was doing after the surgery and I came through 42 radiation treatments and 2 rounds of chemo amazingly well with almost no significant side effects. I just fear my luck is going to run out.

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  • longtermsurvivor
    longtermsurvivor Member Posts: 1,842 Member
    #2
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    The cyberknife is generally used for treatment of a well-defined area where it is imperitive to spare the surrounding normal tissue. Under your circumstances as I understand them, I haven't figured out how this would be used. Are they saying that there is another area, left behind, that is malignant?
  • Marty36
    Marty36 Member Posts: 84
    #3
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    longtermsurvivor said:

    Question
    The cyberknife is generally used for treatment of a well-defined area where it is imperitive to spare the surrounding normal tissue. Under your circumstances as I understand them, I haven't figured out how this would be used. Are they saying that there is another area, left behind, that is malignant?

    I think the goal is reirradiation and as an adjuvant measure. A little research shows that both my Radiologist and Oncologist have authored a paper together on the topic based on a study they performed at Georgetown, which I guess means they know what they are talking about.

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