Giant Robot Zaps Tumors

Posted 6 May 2006 at 14:33 UTC by Rog-a-matic

The CyberKnife radiosurgery robot from Accuray in Sunnyvale can treat tumors anywhere on the body. This is different than other systems that deal with a certain area or have to be manually moved by inferrior humans to a specific location. The $3.5 million CyberKnife wields a focused beam of radiation with a pointing accuracy of less than a millimeter, and even compensates for tumor and patient movement. Apparently spinal tumors are particularly vulnerable to the system. 20K+ patients have been treated by the 100+ machines produced so far. Obviously this is the future of surgery.