Patients now have access to revolutionary technology that can offer hope for inoperable cancer, benign tumors, and other conditions.

Through the combined efforts of hospital and physician leaders, including Dr. E. Malcolm Field, Medical Director of Field Neurosciences Institute, St. Mary’s of Michigan now has a CyberKnife Robotic Radiosurgery System located at its Seton Cancer Institute in Saginaw. This advanced radiosurgery allows oncologists to treat tumors anywhere in the body, applications not feasible with other existing radiosurgical technology. It is the second such system in the state of Michigan and the only one north of Ann Arbor.

CyberKnife, at a cost of over $4 million, the largest amount ever invested on medical technology at St. Mary’s of Michigan, has been made possible through a collaboration between physicians, the Medical Center, and the St. Mary’s of Michigan Foundation which contributed $500,000.

“The addition of the CyberKnife System is a clear statement about our commitment to providing the most advanced and effective cancer services for the Saginaw area and even the state of Michigan and beyond,” said Andy Allen, Interim President and CEO of St. Mary’s of Michigan. “We are confident that our patients will benefit greatly from the CyberKnife System in the months and years ahead.”

“One of the most exciting features of this technology is the capability to deliver robotic radiosurgery to targets that move with respiration, such as the lung, liver, kidneys and pancreas,” says St. Mary’s of Michigan neurosurgeon E. Malcolm Field, MD. He adds, “This is the first system in the world designed to treat tumors anywhere in the body with sub-millimeter accuracy.”

Patient benefits from the CyberKnife System are significant. Many of the complications associated with other conventional cancer therapies are minimized or eliminated by the CyberKnife System. It can be used to treat tumors previously considered inoperable, and many CyberKnife treatments can be performed on an outpatient basis.

In addition, it is possible to treat multiple tumors at different locations in the body during a single treatment session.

With the addition of this technology, St. Mary’s of Michigan joins an elite fraternity. It becomes one of only two medical centers in the United States to have CyberKnife and TomoTherapy, the most advanced radiation delivery systems in the world, under one roof.