This episode of CyberKnife: Beyond Cancer, looks into the world of radiotherapy treatment planning at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, the hospital's history and how they've used traditional linear accelerators to deliver radiation therapy.

Geoff Heyes, Head of Radiotherapy Treatment Planning at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham talks about the CyberKnife machine, including its innovative robotic arms that make it possible to deliver precise radiation therapy with minimal damage to surrounding tissue. These features allow for smaller treatment margins, which changes everything for patients. Geoff discusses the journey to getting this technology up and running at the hospital, including the role that fundraising events and charity funding played.

Guest

Geoff Heyes, Head of Radiotherapy Treatment Planning

Geoff has over 20 years of experience working at the hospital, having originally studied for a master's and diploma in medical and radiation physics. He specialises in small field dosimetry, which involves dose calculations for very small radiation fields as small as 5mm in diameter. Geoff played a lead role in the hospital obtaining its CyberKnife machine and has extensive expertise in treatment planning and operating the system.

Key Takeaways

Over 3,000 cancer patients have received treatment so far in Birmingham thanks to the collaborative efforts of the trust and hospital charity.

Continued clinical trials are still needed, to demonstrate CyberKnife's benefits for more cancer types to be approved for NHS use and help more people access this treatment option.

Geoff's specialisation in small field dosimetry led to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital getting the CyberKnife machine in 2013.

Best Moments

"…when we had the original business cases, we thought our machine would be able to reach about 240 patients a year by year five, I think that was the rejected maximum. We are now routinely treating over 400 patients a year. So it exceeded what we thought it would be able to do. And the patient numbers exceeded what we thought would be available.”

"It really kind of brought home, of the limitations of using this device that we screwed into a patients skull. And our only option at that time was to refer the patient down to London for treatment, which was the closest CyberKnife unit to us. But that patient had a big impact on me because it was like we, we should be really trying to push to use a system that doesn't require us to screw a frame into a patient in the early 2000s. It seemed barbaric.”

“Yes, it's precision. It is suited for small lesions, small, kind of less than about two to three centimetres.”

“So whilst there are other options for lesions in the brain, CyberKnife gives us the ability to do both. So we've got the experience of delivering high precision high focused radiotherapy from the brain lesions, but we can translate that to treating these lesions outside.”

The Stan Bowley Trust

The aim of the Stan Bowley Trust is to raise money for CyberKnife, increase awareness of CyberKnife treatments and provide information for patients and their families.

If you'd like to find out more about CyberKnife radiotherapy treatment, the Stan Bowley trust and the work we do then visit our website, thestanbowleytrust.org

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