The Henry Ford Cancer Institute in Detroit today announced the treatment of a cancer patient with advanced radiation therapy using new real-time magnetic resonance imaging and linear accelerated delivery for a more accurate treatment.
Created by ViewRay Inc., the so-called MRIdian Linacâ can treat cancer anywhere in the body. It is the first FDA-cleared commercially available linear accelerator-based MRI-guided radiation that can image and treat patients simultaneously.
“This is an incredibly exciting advancement in our field that is unlike anything else in the world to treat cancer patients,” says Dr. Benjamin Movsas, chair of the Henry Ford Cancer Institute’s department of radiation oncology. “Being able to continuously see both the tumor and surrounding organs means our team can accurately align the tumor to the treatment beams and make adjustments in real time to avoid sensitive internal structures.
“For radiation oncologists, this exciting technology finally ‘takes off the blindfold,’ and allows us to see during treatment what we could not previously visualize. This is a major leap forward that will benefit cancer patients.”
The new system is used to treat all types of cancers throughout the body and is especially beneficial for tumors where there is typically movement during treatment, including the liver, pancreas, adrenal, and lung. MRIdian combines the effectiveness of a traditional MRI with a linear accelerator to map out a therapy plan and deliver radiation at the intended target.
Nearly two thirds of all cancer patients in the U.S. will receive some form of radiation therapy during the course of their treatment.
