KATHMANDU: The Apollo Speciality Cancer Hospital (ASCH) in Chennai, India, recently installed a precise radiotherapy equipment -- the first technology of this kind in India -- to cure tumours.

Cyberknife, an extremely sophisticated computer-controlled machine, can remove tumours from anywhere in the human body with sub millimetre accuracy. Speaking at a press meet here, Dr Janos Stumpf, senior consultant- Radiation Oncology and advisor at the ASCH, said, "It can thwart the further growth of benign tumours especially in the brain and the spine."

He also claimed that Cyberknife would also help patients recover from the early stage of the lungs and prostate cancer and problems never eradicated before. The procedure itself is convenient and safe for the patients. The way of applying the healing radiation into the pathology at any depth in the human body is unique, the hospital source informed. Anish Vats, marketing executive at the hospital said there was no other radiotherapy equipment which could do time tracking for safety of the patients.

According to Dr Stumpf, Cyberknife merged the advantage of highly penetrating therapeutic X-ray coming from linear accelerator with the precision of an industrial robot. "The radiation could be applied and aimed at the tumour from any angle," he said.