Cyberknife effectiveness - 1254771

laurielu
Posts:9

I am on my second line of chemo which is cisplatin, navelbine, and erbitux I have one cycle to go ( I have completed 5 cycles). Monday I will start Cyberknife (4-5 treatments). The reason for this is because after 3cycles I had a PET scan and although a lot of my lesions/nodes were gone or shrunk there was one in my left lung that grew slightly.
I have two questions. How bad can I expect the side effects to be? (I will continue to work 6 hours a day).
Is this treatment as effective as the brochures claim?
I am very tired, I have been in treatment since July 2012 with only a 3 week break between first line and second line of chemo. I am hoping the decision to have this treatment was the right decision.
Thanks in advance for your response,
Laurie

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Reply # - March 15, 2013, 06:37 AM

sherrys
Posts: 212

Laurie, I had cyberknife on a single brain met, not on my lung, but I can tell you my experience. It was very quick, and very painless. Afterward I felt some tiredness for a few days, but nothing to make me stop activities. The only issues I had were a slight headache and some dizziness. I don't know if I was dizzy from the actual cyberknife treatment, or if it was from the surgery I had prior to remove the tumor. I did lose most of my hair, due to severe thinning - not baldness. But again, my treatment was on my brain.

Reply # - March 15, 2013, 10:58 AM

catdander
Posts:

Hello Laurie, I hope you are doing alright. It sounds like you've have a good bit of treatment and still working almost full time! You're a very strong woman.
I'm not sure what the brochures say but irradiating metastatic nodes is not shown to prolong life. Radiation is used in metastatic cancer to relieve pain. So if that's what you're talking about then yes it should help but standard radiation therapy given to a total low number of grays is standard in palliating a panful met.

Here is a blog post for our FAQ link that describes why radiation and surgery isn't used for metastatic cancer. http://cancergrace.org/cancer-101/2011/01/01/cancer-101-faq-i-have-meta…

Let us know if this helps,
Janine

Reply # - March 15, 2013, 01:05 PM

Dr West
Posts: 4735

I'd really just reiterate what has been said: stereotactic radiation is usually quite well tolerated, with few or no side effects. It tends to be very effective against the focal area being treated, but its efficacy in progressing lung cancer is limited by the high probability of progression outside of the area(s) being treated with radiation, which is really the leading threat in this situation that makes Cyberknife of very unclear, even dubious, value in this setting.

Good luck!

-Dr. West

Reply # - March 15, 2013, 04:27 PM

laurielu
Posts: 9

Thank you for your responses. All other lesions and nodes has responded to the chemo, the lesion we are planning on doing the Cyberknife on is the only one that has grown slightly. I do not have any pain associated with it, we just want to blast it out of there before I finally take a break from chemo.
Today my platelet count was very low, I was told it is 8.8 (I don't really understand these numbers). I am going back in on Monday for another CBC then they will decide if I should start the Cyberknife.

Reply # - March 15, 2013, 10:43 PM

Dr West
Posts: 4735

I don't think that specific number makes much sense for a platelet count (it's not reported as a decimal), but regardless, I hope things go well.

-Dr. West

Reply # - March 19, 2013, 05:18 PM

laurielu
Posts: 9

Sorry Dr. West I had the numbers wrong, on Friday my platelets were 27 and on Monday they went up to 56. So bases on that I was able to start my Cyberknife yesterday (Monday).

Reply # - March 20, 2013, 09:28 PM

laurielu
Posts: 9

If I may Dr. west one more question. Is it true that Cyberknife can be done multiple times even in a place that has already been treated?

Reply # - March 20, 2013, 09:34 PM

Dr West
Posts: 4735

It depends on the specifics. It is used in areas where external beam radiation was previously done and then there's progression in the radiation field, but I have never seen cyberknife used multiple times for the same lesion and would be very concerned about major tissue damage and complications from that.

-Dr. West

Reply # - June 9, 2013, 07:01 AM

sentara1
Posts: 1

Laurilu (and catdander)
I recently (5/28/13) finished Cyberknife to a single caudate lobe liver met which popped up after nine rounds of FOLFOX with Avastin-- four rounds pre-surgery and five postsurgery 6/21/12. CyberKnife was recommended by the Sentara multidisciplinary tumor board to treat my oligometastatic colon cancer NOT as a palliative treatment, but as a local treatment for limited metastatic disease. I did plenty of research including Stanford University and others research centers posting the favorable results of Cyber Knife. While not completely comparable to open surgery, I declined the surgery offered by Mayo Clinic and the chemo therapy suggested by my Virginia medical oncologist. I made it clear I preferred local treatment, not systematic chemotherapy. So far, a week of fatigue has lifted and I've experienced some very mild nausea which makes me hungry (similar to my experience of morning sickness when pregnant). I MUCH prefer this local treatment to chemo which was quite miserable and seemed to beat the hell out of the rest of my body. In my mind, chemo degrades the body's internal 'terrain"and increases inflammation while making the surviving cancer 'smarter" and more virulent through mutation. I also believe the pre-op chemo may have shrunken a small tumor, effectively hiding it from my (genius) surgeon who did a quite thorough job eliminating two known and one very small tumor (with RFA) which he found using ultra sound during surgery. My combined (nine hour) extended left colectomy and wedge liver surgery was an amazing accomplishment, with the only side effect of voice loss for about a month. Since the new met was in the hard to reach caudate lobe, the Sentara tumor board consensus was CyberKnife. A PET scan will be scheduled for late July to check up on the near term results, and to check to see if any extra-hepatic metastases has developed. www.aboutcancer.com/oligomets_milano_0108.htm

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