Hi ....... I have had cyberknife brain treatment and all I can suggest is that you swiftly contact the london hospitals who do both cyber and gamma knife procedures to get their opinions. You can ask for his scans to be sent to them. The only reason I say to do this quickly is that I don't think they will do targeted radiotherapy if he has wbc beforehand.  You can Google where the hospitals are - there is the cyberknife centre in Harley street but I'm not sure re gamma knife however it lists the hospitals online. Good luck x

Hi = I think Cyberknife is in Royal Marsden London and Liverpool and also Guildford. I am sure there are other machines else where. The idea of this is to target treatment better and that would reduce side effects = so worth asking about. Good luck on you all at this time.

Thank you for your replys. I contacted the Royal marsden and received advice about referral. Unfortunately my dad seems to want to go with what his onc has set and there is little I can do to persuade him otherwise. Do you know why the radiation may only being given as a set of 5 when you are allowed a lot more? If he has minimal dose now does that mean he could have more in the future? 

I don't know the answer to that Kristy but think that wbc can also damage heAlthy tissue so maybe it's for that reason. Targeted RT, ie gamma or cyberknife involves rays entering the head in around I think 140 different areas so they are weak and won't damage heAlthy tissue, then they all meet at the tumour and together destroy it. The nurses here may be able to explain better if you ring them or your Dad's consultant should be a able to tell you about the significance of five treatments. X

 Thank you Max I am trying to find out as much as I can. It's hard trying to accept that dad doesn't want to push for a second opinion and if I push he will get upset. I think as treatment is scheduled to start in 7-10 days he's just wants to get going. I feel for him so much today he is giving up his license and his independence and something that has kept normal- how did you find having to do that Max? And is 2 years 2years without driving even if success with brain met treatment? We also had a call last night to say my grandad dads dad has had a stroke  :( which has given my poor daddy another shock. 

thank you once again for taking time to reply I really appreciate it :) xx

Hi,

In general oncologists, seem to try to keep both chemo and radiotherapy to a minimum to avoid excessive side effects and unnecessary damage. In the old days they would have just blasted the cancer with maximum allowed, but research has proved that this approach has better outcomes.

As a patient this seemed counter-intuitive, at one point I thought maybe they were just trying to save money, but I must admit that it seems to have worked for me. 

Dave