Radiation oncology firm Elekta has installed the initial components of a high-field MRI-guided radiation therapy system at University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands.
This marks a milestone toward the development of a clinical system capable of capturing MR images of tumors and surrounding normal tissues as a patient receives radiotherapy, Elekta said. Development of the high-field MRI-guided linear accelerator (linac) is the mission of the MR Linac Research Consortium headed by Elekta and supported by Philips.
The integration of a Philips Healthcare 1.5-tesla MRI system with Elekta's radiation therapy system enables simultaneous imaging during beam delivery and could allow doctors to adapt radiation therapy during the procedure, increasing treatment accuracy, potentially reducing side effects, and enabling increases in the therapeutic dose, the company said.
