Hope for cancer patients: Jinnah Hospital Karachi offering free cyberknife treatment

KARACHI: Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) Karachi is offering free cyberknife treatment for cancer patients across the country, providing them a glimmer of hope.

CyberKnife is a state-of-the-art, non-invasive treatment for cancer and tumors that utilizes advanced robotic technology. Unlike traditional methods, it delivers highly precise radiation therapy, minimizing damage to surrounding healthy tissue.

There is no surgery – no incisions or anesthesia are required for this treatment.

Due to this precise radiation therapy, the patient feels no pain and has minimum side effects, according to Dr Tariq Mehmood, head of Oncology department at the JPMC.

It is used to treat conditions throughout the body, including the prostate, lung, brain, spine, head and neck, liver, pancreas and kidney, and can be an alternative to surgery or for patients who have inoperable or surgically complex tumors, he said.

 CyberKnife treatments are typically performed in 1 to 5 sessions. The CyberKnife System has more than two decades of clinical proof and has helped thousands of cancer patients.

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The CyberKnife System is the only radiation delivery system that features a linear accelerator (linac) directly mounted on a robot to deliver the high-energy x-rays or photons used in radiation therapy. The robot moves and bends around the patient, to deliver radiation doses from potentially thousands of unique beam angles, significantly expanding the possible positions to concentrate radiation to the tumor while minimizing dose to surrounding healthy tissue.

This robotic delivery and real-time image guidance have set the standard for delivery precision and enable stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) and stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) treatments for the full range of tumor types.

JPMC has been the sole centre that globally offers free Cyberknife and tomotherapy cancer treatments, benefiting patients from 15 countries and 167 cities in Pakistan, irrespective of religion or ethnicity.

These cyberknife treatment in Karachi, which are costly elsewhere, are provided free of charge at the JPMC.