Sinai Hospital of Baltimore announces it has acquired a second CyberKnife® Robotic Radiosurgery System for its expanding CyberKnife® Center. The addition of the new CyberKnife® will help support the Center’s continued growth. In addition to treating brain and spine lesions; the most recent growth has been led in large part by stereotactic radiosurgery for lung and pancreas tumor treatments. Since opening the CyberKnife® Center in the Alvin & Lois Lapidus Cancer Institute in 2003, Sinai Hospital has become recognized as a national leader in treating brain, spine, lung and gastrointestinal tumors.

“The addition of a second CyberKnife® System to our Center enables Sinai Hospital to meet the increasing demand we’re seeing for the treatment of inoperable and surgically complex tumors,” said Mark Brenner, M.D., chief of Radiation Oncology at Sinai Hospital and medical director of the CyberKnife® Center.

The CyberKnife® is a noninvasive, highly precise treatment. The CyberKnife® allows doctors to target soft tissue tumors such as those found in the lung and pancreas along with tumors of the brain and spine, which might otherwise not be treatable because of location or previous failure to respond to standard radiation treatment. This highly targeted technique allows the maximum amount of radiation to get to the source of the tumor and kill it, while protecting surrounding healthy tissue from damage.

In addition to serving as a cancer treatment option, the CyberKnife® also enables doctors at Sinai to give patients access to therapy for other spine and brain problems.

“The CyberKnife allows us to perform revolutionary, noninvasive procedures to remove soft tissue tumors like those found in the lungs and pancreas as well as in the brain and spine without a single incision. This is an important advancement in medicine that make a huge impact in the lives of our patients,” said Neal Naff, M.D., chief of Neurosurgery at Sinai and surgical director of the Cyberknife® Center.

Sinai Hospital projects the hospital’s second CyberKnife® will be in operation by September 2006, making Sinai one of the only hospitals in the country with two CyberKnife ® systems.
The CyberKnife® is an integral part of the Alvin & Lois Lapidus Cancer Institute. For more information, call 410-601-WELL or log onto www.lifebridgehealth.org.

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