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List the Differences Between Trilogy & CyberKnife

Radiotherapy first began in the early 20th century, when medical student Emil Grubbe convinced his professor to allow him to irradiate Rose Lee, a patient suffering from advanced breast cancer. Radiotherapy, or radiation therapy, uses high-energy radiation to kill cancer cells and treat tumors, and between 50 and 60 percent of all cancer patients receive radiation treatment sometime during their disease, according to RadiologyInfo.org. Two inventions in the field of radiotherapy, the CyberKnife and Varian's Trilogy, have given oncologists a non-invasive way to treat tumors.

  1. CyberKnife

    • Developed by Stanford University Professor of Neurosurgery and Radiation Oncology John Adler and researchers Peter and Russell Schonberg of the Schonberg Research Corporation, the CyberKnife Robotic Radiosurgery System allows the treatment of cancerous and non-cancerous tumors anywhere in the body through non-surgical means. CyberKnife delivers high doses of radiation to tumors with pinpoint accuracy, leaving the surrounding muscle and tissue unharmed. Using a high-resolution CT scan to digitally map out the tumor, CyberKnife's robotic arm slowly moves around a patient to deliver radiation in the various angles necessary to effectively treat the tumor, according to CyberKnife's website.

    Varian Trilogy

    • Varian Medical Systems' Trilogy uses the company's RapidArc radiotherapy technology to create an algorithm that allows for precise treatment delivery control. The Trilogy image-guidance system compensates for a patient's breathing and movement, delivering treatment directly to the tumor, which results in less radiation leakage and scatter. Thus, surrounding tissue receives less exposure. The RapidArc system uses a rotating crane that quickly targets treatment areas, and cuts down on the amount of time a patient spends in treatment.

    Delivery Systems

    • The major difference between CyberKnife and Trilogy is how the two systems deliver radiation therapy. CyberKnife's robot arm allows the system to deliver radiation to the tumor regardless of any movement of the tumor during treatment. By contrast, the Trilogy system's crane does not offer the same range of motion; while precise, Trilogy can only deliver treatment to within two millimeters of precision, while CyberKnife is accurate within a sub-millimeter, according to Teresa Machan of "The London Telegraph."

    Treatment Methods

    • CyberKnife is a radiosurgery-dedicated machine, while Trilogy can perform radiosurgery and conventional radiotherapy. CyberKnife can treat the brain, spine and other organs with radiosurgery precision. Trilogy can treat the brain with radiosurgery precision, but depending on where in the body a tumor is located, Trilogy may not be able to treat that tumor with radiosurgery precision, according to CyberKnife Center of San Diego. Treatment times also vary, as a CyberKnife treatment session will last between 30 to 90 minutes, while a Trilogy session takes only two minutes in most cases.

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