Tirupati: Asia-Pacific'''s most advanced CyberKnife treatment, introduced at Chennai-based Apollo Hospital, was declared safe by Consultant Radiation Oncologist, Apollo hospitals, Dr R Rathnadevi.

Talking to mediapersons at 24 hours Apollo Clinic here yesterday, she said the robotic radiosurgery system is designed to treat tumours anywhere in the body with sub-millimeter accuracy and the Apollo hospitals which introduced CyberKnife Robotic Radio Surgery System April this year, alone had treated 75 patients against 60,000 cases treated successfully all over the world. ''The technology has no side effects and provides painless cancer treatment,'' she claimed.

If Andhra Pradesh government permits, CyberKnife technology would be adopted in the state-sponsored Ayogya Sree health scheme, she felt.

''Cancers like lung cancer could not be treated with traditional radiation techniques due to high risk of radiation damage to the surrounding tissue due to the movement of tumours in the lungs as the patient breathed. CyberKnife system follows the lung tumour accurately while the patient is breathing. Tumours in the spine, particularly metastatic tumours are challenging to operate upon because of the proximity to the spinal cord. The CyberKnife System can track tumour and the patient's spine movement during the treatment, hence minimising the risk of damage to surrounding tissues. CyberKnife systems have also shown promising results in treating prostate cancer'', she explained.

To a question, she said the new technology was not used in breast cancer so far. Developed initially by Dr John R Adler, Professor of Neurosurgery and Radiation Oncology, Stanford University Medical Centre, the CyberKnife Robotic Radiosurgery System is the first system in the world designed to treat tumours anywhere in the body with sub-millimeter accuracy. During a CyberKnife procedure, a patient lies comfortably on the treatment table, which automatically positions the patient. The non-invasive treatment requires no anesthesia.It generally lasts between 30 and 90 minutes involving the administration of 100-200 radiation beams delivered from different directions, each lasting 10 to 15 seconds.