Tracking System for Spinal Tumors

A new spine-tracking system has been integrated with a radiosurgery system to eliminate the need for surgical implantation of radiographic markers, or fiducials, in the delivery of radiosurgery treatments for spinal tumors.

Spinal radiosurgery has posed problems for oncologists and neurosurgeons. Traditional radiation treatments may not be accurate because of the close proximity to sensitive structures like the spinal cord. Also, because skeletal structures such as spinal vertebra move independently, doctors found it necessary to surgically implant fiducials into the spine in order to track the movement of the lesion during treatment, which introduced many of the drawbacks associated with invasive surgery.

The CyberKnife radiosurgery system is the only system that continually tracks lesions and automatically compensates for their movements throughout the entire treatment. It can deliver submillimeter total clinical accuracy in the spine without fiducials, thereby offering precision and conformality. The tracking system, called Xsight, is the product of Accuray (Sunnyvale, CA, USA), as is the CyberKnife. Xsight helps to treat lesions throughout the spinal region, including cervical, thoracic, lumbar, and sacral tumors.

"Xsight obviates the need for placement of fiducials and allows for computerized real-time tracking and delivery of radiation with submillimeter accuracy,” noted Fraser Henderson, M.D., director, Spine Tumor Center (Georgetown University Hospital, Washington, DC, USA). "This is a significant advance in eliminating pain for the patient and for allowing the surgeon to expedite treatment within the limited therapeutic window.”




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