Radiation oncology firm Elekta and MRI technology partner Philips Healthcare have begun installing an investigational high-field MR-adaptive linear accelerator (MR-linac) at Froedtert and the Medical College of Wisconsin's (MCW) Clinical Cancer Center at Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee.
The center will be the second U.S. site and fifth global institution to install the MR-linac system, which integrates a radiotherapy system and high-field MRI scanner with novel software, according to Elekta. The system, which can capture diagnostic-quality images of tumors and surrounding tissues during the delivery of radiation therapy, is designed to improve targeting of tumors while reducing radiation exposure to healthy tissue, Elekta said.
The Froedtert and MCW Cancer Network joined Elekta's MR-linac research consortium in 2013. Other institutions already evaluating the MR-linac include the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam, University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands, MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, and the Institute of Cancer Research, working with its clinical partner the Royal Marsden National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust in London.
