Advanced system offers ray of hope

CyberKnife allows patients to have painless and highly effective treatment on tumours that might otherwise be inoperable

When a young mother, who was dying of cancer, came to the Hong Kong Adventist Hospital even the most advanced anti-cancer weapon couldn't offer her the gift of life - but it was able to give her something almost as precious.

'She was in her 30s and she had advanced lung cancer,' said Victor Tsang Hing-yeung, the hospital's assistant clinical director, CyberKnife Centre. 'She had tried everything and she knew she was dying, but now she was losing her vision as well. It was a very sad case. The cancer had spread to the area around her eyes. She told us, 'My only hope now is that I don't want to die blind. I want to see my husband and I want to see my young daughter'.'

To save her sight, she was treated with the hospital's US$5million CyberKnife, a frameless robotic radiosurgery system able to non-invasively treat tumours anywhere in the body with sub-millimetre accuracy.

'She was able to retain her vision up to her death. She passed away still able to see her family,' said Dr Tsang, who has treated most of the 130 patients who have used the CyberKnife since it was installed at a total cost of HK$78million in September last year. 'It was a very touching experience.'

Dr Tsang explained that CyberKnife was a remarkable advance in radiosurgery, allowing patients to have painless and highly effective treatment on tumours that might otherwise be inoperable.