Denver CyberKnife is also preparing to become a site for the Lung Cancer STARS (Stereotactic Radiotherapy vs. Surgery) Trial. The STARS trial is an M.D. Anderson Cancer Center International randomized study to compare CyberKnife® Stereotactic Radiotherapy with surgical resection in stage I non-small cell lung cancer.

The CyberKnife indeed warrants a good long hard look for anyone with a condition that can benefit from this treatment.

Most surgeons don’t like it. Most radiation oncologists don’t like it. They don’t make as much money off of it on a per case basis. So they pooh-pooh the data as not sufficiently seasoned. But CyberKnife has patients now three, four and five years out and no signs yet that either the biological failure rate or complication rate is changing.

A survey published this year of patients who had undergone CyberKnife for prostate found that “to a man”, these patients were satisfied with their choice. No other treatment paradigm even comes close to this level of customer satisfaction.

This article in the Wall Street Journal is pretty lame but the comments on the blog section are very telling. Some of these patients have really done their research and can hold their own debating these docs. Actually, I would say the patient advocates for CyberKnife clearly got the better of them, exposed their financial bias and refuted their arguments effectively.

http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/11/28/is-cyberknife-ready-for-prime-time-in-prostate-cancer/

When patients are this passionate about supporting a treatment option it tells you three things. One, their expectations are being met or exceeded. Two, they are not coming away with complications for which their docs downplayed either the probability or severity thereof. Three, they are not enduring an invasive or debilitating treatment and then wondering afterward if it was really worth it. All pretty good indications that CyberKnife for prostate at least warrants a good long hard look for anyone facing the need to make such a decision.