UMC Utrecht treats cancer with MR-Linac

Good treatment leads to good control of the tumor, or even a cure. But also involves as few side effects as possible. UMC Utrecht used this starting point in Utrecht to improve the treatment of tumors with radiation. For this purpose, UMC Utrecht has combined a radiation apparatus with an MRI scanner: the MR-Linac.With this device they can irradiate more precisely. The device is now being used in the radiation treatment of more and more types of cancer.

More about treatment of prostate cancer with MR-Linac

Very precise radiation

The MR-Linac was developed by UMC Utrecht after 20 years of careful research. With this device, UMC Utrecht can see the tumor(s) and surrounding healthy tissue very precisely during radiation treatment and adjust the radiation treatment accordingly. In this way, they only irradiate the diseased cells and spare as many healthy cells as possible. Meanwhile, the device is being used worldwide in cancer treatment.

From 20 times irradiation to five times

Since 2018, UMC Utrecht has been treating patients with the MR-Linac. The largest group of patients are people with prostate cancer.The use of the MR-Linac has already reduced the treatment period for these patients: from 20 times of radiation to five times of radiation. Also, inserting gold rods into the prostate before irradiation is no longer necessary. This allows the healthy cells around the prostate to be extra well spared from a high dose of radiotherapy.

More and more tumor types

Step by step, UMC Utrecht is also treating other tumor types in this way. For example, professor of image-guided radiotherapy Martijn Intven treats patients like Ronald, who has the rare disease MEN1 syndrome and whose pancreaswas irradiated with the MR-Linac.

Source: UMC Utrecht

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