Anova Cancer Care to participate in CyberKnife research study

Anova Cancer Care has been chosen to participate in a landmark national prostate cancer study. The goal of the two-year study is to determine the best treatments for prostate cancer. The study will look specifically at prostate cancer radiosurgery (CyberKnife^®). Anova Cancer Care is currently enrolling eligible patients in the study.    

Gregg Dickerson, M.D., F.A.C.R., Anova Cancer Care Medical Director and chief radiosurgeon for the study being conducted at his center, said CyberKnife technology was not included in an earlier study comparing several types of prostate cancer treatment. When investigators discovered the positive results reported for the CyberKnife procedure, they determined it had to be included in the comparison.

"For the CyberKnife research study, the researchers have chosen three of the top centers in the U.S. that perform prostate cancer radiosurgery, and it is a privilege and an honor for Anova Cancer Care to be selected," said Dickerson. "This study gives men with prostate cancer in the Western United States the opportunity to be involved in historic and highly significant research."

The University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill was awarded a $3.4 million grant to conduct comparative effectiveness research in prostate cancer by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the federal agency charged with improving the quality, safety, efficiency and effectiveness of health care. Recognizing the importance of including radiosurgery as a treatment for comparison, UNC researchers have received additional funding from Accuray®, Inc. to recruit additional patients treated specifically by this treatment.

The study is looking for men age 35 to 80 who have been newly diagnosed with low risk or intermediate risk prostate cancer. For more information on participating, patients can call Anova Cancer Care at 303-396-1411. Telephone consent and phone surveys will be conducted by UNC's Carolina Survey Research Laboratory.

Since 2001, CyberKnife clinics nationwide have successfully treated more than 100,000 patients, and Anova Cancer Care was among the first to start treating prostate patients in Colorado. Dickerson recently assisted in the effort to educate Medicare to gain recognition of CyberKnife as a covered treatment option for prostate cancer in the four-state region that includes Colorado.