History of CyberKnife development

John Adler, the inventor of CyberKnife, first thought of the possible improvements in the Gamma Knife while studying stereotactic radiosurgery under Leksell. He wanted to create a frameless total body radiosurgical apparatus. This happened in 1985. Over the next three years, as the Chief of Neurosurgery at the Palo Alto Veterans Hospital , he
mobilized the intellectual resources at the Silicon Valley to start his journey. CyberKnife prototype, then called Neurotron 1000, commenced operation at the Stanford University Hospital in 1994.

		In 1999, the system, by then called CyberKnife, obtained FDA approval for treatment of head, neck, and upper spine tumors. In 2001, CyberKnife received FDA clearance for the treatment of tumors anywhere in the body. In 2004, Synchrony Respiratory Tracking System received FDA clearance. In 2005, Accuray, the manufacturer,
introduced the Xsight Spine Tracking System, which made it possible to automatically track, detect and correct for spine movements without having to implant radiological markers or fiducials.

At the end of March 2007, 97 CyberKnife Systems were installed worldwide: 63 are in the United States, 25 in Asia, 9 in Europe.

As of March 31, 2007, more than 30,000 patients have been treated worldwide.

Up to April 2007, CyberKnife has been used to treat more that 2000 lung cancer patients worldwide. Applications for lung, prostate, and liver cancers, have the fastest growth in clinical application. The first two mentioned sites is responsible for up to 30% growth in the second quarter in 2007.