Asian Hospital slashes cancer treatment time with CyberKnife

The robotic radiosurgery system cuts cancer treatment from 30 to five sessions.

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Manila-based Asian Hospital and Medical Center is introducing a radiotherapy technology that can track cancerous tumours in real time by adjusting to natural body movements like breathing and digestion.

The CyberKnife technology, set to launch in July, will be the first of its kind in the Philippines, Beaver Tamesis, Asian Hospital President and CEO, told Healthcare Asia. “The system is robotic and assisted by artificial intelligence,” he said in an exclusive interview.

If the tumour is in the lungs and moves as the patient breathes, or in the colon and shifts, the technology can adjust radiation delivery to minimise its impact on healthy tissues, the chief executive officer added.

Cancer was the third leading cause of death in the country in 2024, according to the local statistics agency.

Tamesis said traditional radiation techniques lack precision. For example, tumours near the eye can be risky. “A difference of just a millimetre [from the tumour] is crucial for the patient's well-being,” he said.

Conventional techniques like intensity-modulated radiation therapy need multiple sessions over several weeks, even though each session lasts only about 10 minutes. CyberKnife can cut treatment time from 30 sessions to as few as five.