The Alaska CyberKnife Center at Providence Cancer Center now offers patients the only CyberKnife treatments in the state of Alaska. The CyberKnife System is an additional treatment option for pancreatic cancer. For qualified patients, the CyberKnife System provides a non-invasive, clinically proven treatment method. The CyberKnife System works by precisely delivering high doses of radiation to tumors. Because of the extreme precision of the CyberKnife System, the board-certified radiation oncologists at Alaska CyberKnife are often able to treat pancreatic cancer with fewer side effects.

CyberKnife radiation treatment for pancreatic cancer offers a number of benefits, such as:

• Pinpoint accuracy –The CyberKnife System can deliver radiation with sub-millimeter precision, sparring damage to healthy surrounding organs, tissues, and structures.
• Innovative real-time imaging and motion-tracking technology accounts for natural tumor movement from breathing and other bodily functions to ensure that radiation is delivered directly to the tumor.
• Minimized side effects results in a better quality of life, even on days of treatment.
• Non-surgical and non-invasive, which means patients suffer no pain, nor do they worry about incisions, bleeding, or an extended recovery time.
• Outpatient treatments – No anesthesia or hospital stay, which lowers risks for complications.
• Only 1 to 5 short treatments, completed in less than one week, compared to conventional radiation treatments that can take three to six weeks to complete.

The CyberKnife System can be used alone or as a complement to conventional radiation therapy, chemotherapy and/or surgery. It offers new hope to patients who cannot undergo pancreatic cancer surgery because of poor health or a complex tumor, or those who would like an alternative to the long recovery and potential complications often associated with surgery.