The device was invented at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1967 by Lars Leksell, Ladislau Steiner, a Romanian born neurosurgeon, and Börje Larsson, a radiobiologist from Sweden's Uppsala University.
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It was invented by John R. Adler, a Stanford University Professor of Neurosurgery and Radiation Oncology and Russell and Peter Schonberg at SCHONBERG RESEARCH, and is sold by the Accuray company, located in Sunnyvale, California.
In 2008 actor Patrick Swayze was among the people to be treated with CyberKnife radiosurgery.
From 1980 to 1987 he did a neurosurgical residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital and a radiosurgery fellowship at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, where he worked with Lars Leksell.
Initially, in collaboration with a small number of brilliant innovators, this led to the creation of software for 3D radiotherapy and stereotactic radiosurgery, resulting in the development of the early versions (initially referred to as “UW Stereo”) of what is possibly the most widely used software for 3-D radiotherapy and IMRT, PinnacleTM, currently marketed by Philips.