My life was saved by the same knife-wielding robot that treated Patrick Swayze

Just more than a year ago Alan Bowley would be a dying guy. Identified by having an inoperable tumor on his pancreas, Alan's only option was palliative radiotherapy to purchase him a couple of more several weeks of existence.

'I was at an awful condition,' states law enforcement sergeant from Congleton, Cheshire. 'The type I'd was known as a peripheral nerve tumor, which resulted in it affected the sheath from the nerves in the region where it had been situated. These kind of tumours are very painful and that i experienced quite badly.

'I was using the maximum dose of dental morphine permitted every day, but even that simply required the advantage from the discomfort and left me feeling nauseous and drowsy.

Internet gain: Alan's wife Jesse about Cyberknife chance

90 percent rate of survival

'I battled to pressure lower the littlest quantity of food. I'm 6ft tall in most cases weigh around 14st, however i was lower to 8st, feeling weak and drained, also it was difficult to do not lie in mattress or around the sofa. I felt near to quitting hope.'

Just 39, married to Jesse, a midwife, with three children younger than ten, Alan had something to love. But his surgeon, who'd already effectively removed an identical tumor on your wall of his duodenum in 2002, was adament that this time around there'd be no similar miracle.

'This new tumor was wrapped around an artery which gives the low stomach,' describes Alan. 'This meant there is a higher chance that peeling it from the artery would cause massive damage and that i could bleed to dying around the operating table. Choices wasn't prepared to accept risk. The trainer told us with radiotherapy I would survive another 2 yrs.A

But after Alan's wife happened across cure on the web - only a couple of days following this fateful diagnosis - he was soon inside a hospital in Washington Electricity getting Cyberknife therapy.

Cyberknife is really a highly accurate type of radiotherapy that's pinpoint accurate and may generate a high dose to inside a 1mm precision range. It uses a sophisticated linear accelerator which could produce high-energy beams, along with a robot which could provide the radiotherapy beams from the 3 angles using robot arms like the ones observed in Picasso vehicle adverts.

Vitally, several X-ray cameras constantly monitor the positioning of the patient because they breathe or make small actions, then feeds the three dimensional blood pressure measurements to the robot which changes the beam accordingly.

This precision is a big advance on conventional radiotherapy which could frequently damage the region round the tumor. Consequently, Cyberknife may be used on areas that have been formerly considered too harmful to become treated by conventional radiotherapy, and employ much greater doses.

Patrick Swayze has already established Cyberknife strategy to pancreatic cancer

The device can treat, for instance, early-stage non-small cell cancer of the lung, spine tumours as well as areas that have already gone through irradiation.

In March this season film star Patrick Swayze had Cyberknife strategy to his pancreatic cancer.

Dr Gregory Gagnon, from the Department of Radiation Medicine at Georgetown College Hospital, who treated Alan, states: 'This has opened up up another wave of cancer for treatment that have been formerly considered inoperable. For instance, we've been collating data on management of early-stage non-small cell cancer of the lung in the last 3 years.

'Usually this problem includes a rate of survival of 30 percent over 3 years. Patients who've gone through Cyberknife possess a rate of survival close to 90 percent within the same period.

'We have treated spine cancer without harmful the spinal-cord and also the vital nerves that surround the spine, and may make use of it to deal with multiple secondary tumours.'

In other aggressive cancer, for example pancreatic, Dr Gagnon claims it features a 100 percent rate of success of holding the treated tumor in the same size.

'Unfortunately, pancreatic cancer will more often than not appear elsewhere which is too soon to state whether Cyberknife extends survival in these instances,A he adds. 'But even so Cyberknife is definitely an very good palliative treatment since the side-effects are minimal and the rise in quality of existence significant.'

You will find Cyberknife centres in France, Italia, holland, The country and Poultry, with a minimum of eight within the U.S. - including, incredibly, one out of a dog hospital in New You are able to. But presently none within the United kingdom. 'Janet discovered a united states website operated by individuals who had used Cyberknife in the end remained as waiting to ascertain if my surgeon could take away the tumor within the United kingdom,' states Alan.

'Although he'd never heard about it, he sent my CT scans to America. Inside a couple of days we've got an e-mail back saying they believed they might irradiate the tumor without harmful the artery.'

However Alan needed to enhance the ?37,000 required for plane tickets and treatment.

'Because I had been going down hill so quick, there is virtually no time to try to get primary care trust (Percentage) funding. We handled to boost a financial institution loan, and my co-workers within the police were wonderful, pledging to boost money to pay for it. Both teams of parents were extremely encouraging.'

On This summer 30 this past year Alan and Jesse travelled to Washington and met Dr Gagnon. 'He felt that there is an excellent chance of having the ability to get rid of the tumor completely,' states Alan. 'I can't let you know that ecstatic I felt to listen to that in the end unhealthy news from the previous couple of several weeks.'

The very next day Alan went through a surgical procedure to possess 'fiducial' markers placed into his tumor using keyhole surgery. They are small seed products that permit the Cyberknife system to trace the tumor as the radiotherapy happens. Not much later a CT scan determined the positioning of the markers that have been given in to the Cyberknife computer together with three dimensional pictures of the tumor.

'I had 72 hours of treatment with every lasting 40 minutes,' states Alan. 'It was completely painless. I lay there hearing my jazz music because the cameras moved around.'

Following the second dose Alan's discomfort made worse, most likely since the nerve-dependent tumor was inflamed through the treatment. But following a night's sleep he awoke discomfort-free the very first time in several weeks.

Around the mend

His CT scan annually on has proven the tumor growth continues to be stopped, meaning the therapy has effectively stopped the cells of cancer from replicating. Based on Dr Gagnon, Alan's tumor may stay size for good, or decrease because it is gradually made available to your body.

Meanwhile, Alan's existence is gradually coming back to normalcy. 'I've gone to work 72 hours per week, as well as in June walked midway up Scafell Pike [within the Lake District] transporting my three-year-old on my small back.'

The Cyberknife machine costs around f2million but there's also the price of building the facilities including the radiotherapyproof bunker as well as training which could easily double the amount costs.

The NHS has to date baulked at presenting this facility, however in The month of january 2009 the non-public Harley Street Clinic will open its f15 million Cyberknife center, the very first within the United kingdom. It estimations that the price of treatment is going to be up to f12,000, although individuals with private medical health insurance ought to be covered.

Headed up by Dr Nick Plowman, who's also director of clinical oncology at St Bartholomew's Hospital working in london, it will likely be available through the private sector but additionally, he hopes, together with the NHS later on.

Alan is presently fighting to obtain a few of the price of his treatment away from his Percentage.

He states: 'This treatment methods are a lifesaver so we discovered about this by accident. Even our consultant had not heard about it. There has to be 100s of individuals within the United kingdom who may benefit, also it appears shocking that it's not easily at hand. What cost you a human existence?'