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Ottawa hospital is raising fund for CKhttp://www.canada.com/health/Blade+less+knife+will+revolutionize+brain+surgery+cancer+treatment+surgeon/2365135/story.html Ottawa Citizen By Shelley Page Dec 20, 2009 OTTAWA — Dr. John Sinclair has spent four years pitching the promise of a $4-million knife that doesn’t even have a blade. The neurosurgeon has told anyone who will listen, including colleagues at the Ottawa Hospital, government officials and potential funders, that a technology called CyberKnife will revolutionize brain surgery and treatment of many cancers. Sinclair describes the CyberKnife as a cross between a robot’s arm and the sensor wand that Star Trek’s Dr. “Bones” McCoy used to pass over his mates on the Starship Enterprise to cure all sorts of ailments. But mostly, Sinclair talks about how the CyberKnife will improve the lives of many patients. “Some cancer patients who had inoperable tumours can now be treated,” he said. The CyberKnife uses targeted radiation to destroy tumours anywhere in the body, reaching into places a surgeon’s scalpel cannot. “Some patients will be spared invasive surgeries. No cutting up of the insides. No stays in the Intensive Care Units. Or long recovery times,” he says. The CyberKnife has shown in recent clinical trials that it is as good as conventional radiation — without the side effects — in treating many different types of cancers, says Sinclair. Instead of daily treatment over six or seven weeks, it can be done over two or three days. “That’s three radiation treatments instead of 35,” he says. “Imagine.” After four years of asking others to “imagine” the possibility of the CyberKnife, the 42-year-old Sinclair learned recently that Cancer Care Ontario has chosen Ottawa and Hamilton to be the first centres in Ontario to test this technology. (A CyberKnife just began operations in Montreal.) “I always knew we would do it,” says Sinclair. “It wasn’t if, but when.” First, the Ottawa Hospital must raise about $3.5 million. For that it will be turning to the Hospital Foundation, as well as help from patients, medical staff and other private donors. “When we get CyberKnife here our Cancer Centre will be the state of the art. It will be one of the best in country,” says Paula Doering, the hospital’s vice president of clinical programs. .... The next weeks are crucial as the Ottawa Hospital looks for donors. The Ottawa Hospital Foundation is raising money. An order for the machine must be placed. Sinclair is confident it will all come together. He hopes to be able to have a CyberKnife operating at Ottawa Hospital by May. |
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