Friday the 19. May the first patient was treated using the high-field MR-guided linear accelerator (MR-Linac) at the University Medical Center (UMC) in Utrecht/Netherlands. This latest radiotherapy device provide accurate and actual visual images enabling precise irradiation with minimal damage to surrounding tissue even in case of a moving tumor while treating.

This MR-Linac system, installed by Elektra and Royal Philips, is emerging as a promising appliance in the field of oncology, for locating and quantifying the tumor tissue, for planning the appropriate therapy, for treatment guidance and therapy evaluation.

According to The Netherlands Cancer Institute, precise and correct dose of radiation is potentially reducing side effects of radiation sessions and improves the quality of life, and ultimately regulating the radiation dose increases tumor control ability. 

By combining a MRI device and a radiation device, cancer patients would need less radiation because of the greater effectiveness of the radiation. A further great advantage is that less healthy surrounding tissue is affected by the radiation.

The new device, developed by some Utrecht professors, is currently being tested on people for the first time, after its development period of 18 years.  Groundbreaking the experts call this new device and it is expected to be used in hospitals and cancer centers and clinics on a word-wide scale in future.  Showing crystal clear images during the treatment, the device can accurately irradiate the tumor, even when moving while the patient is breathing for instance. In this way the treatment can be adjusted to the patient while being in the device. The irradiation times can be lowered so the patient does not have to spend so much time at the hospital.

 The experimental irradiation method is currently applied to five patients with bone tumors. When this radiation turns out to be successful, patients with tumors in the abdomen or pelvis are next to receive the treatment.