Neurosurgeon, Dr. William Cobb is spearheading an initiative to start a stereotactic radiosurgery spine program at The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, New Jersey.
“This is the future of cancer treatment and it puts us at the cutting edge of cancer care,” said Dr. Cobb. “Valley recently upgraded to a brand new radiation machine called TruBeam that is faster and more accurate than its predecessor and will afford us the opportunity to be even more aggressive with our treatments to better target tumors while avoiding important structures.”
Dr. Cobb and Dr. Chad DeYoung treated their first cancer patient with this new machine at Valley this month. The patient had prostate cancer that had spread to his spine. “He came in the week before and his treatment was planned,” said Dr. Cobb. “The day of the procedure he came in and was placed in the machine. No incision, no frame, no pain. Simply two sessions, nine minutes each. His treatment was less that thirty minutes and he was home by noon.”
Dr. Cobb says he is hoping to expand the stereotactic spine program just as Dr. Anthony D’Ambrosio expanded the Gamma Knife Program at Valley Hospital (read about that here).
“Our first step is to create awareness of this treatment’s utility among physicians at Valley,” said Dr. Cobb. To that end, he invited Dr. Mark Bilsky, the director of the Spine Tumor Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, to speak about this innovative and minimally invasive treatment at Valley’s recent neuroscience meeting.
“The event was well attended by physicians from the neurosurgery, neurology, oncology and radiation oncology groups,” said Dr. Cobb. “Dr. Bilsky discussed how stereotactic radiosurgery of the spine is faster, less invasive, better tolerated by patients, and more effective than traditional radiation and prolonged maximally invasive surgery. His talk was well received and all involved are excited to expand our practice.”
To learn more about Dr. William Cobb, see his bio page here.
