MR-Linac for Radiation Therapy
July 25, 2017 | Terry Sharrer
Mrs. Rose Lee is not well remembered in the history of radiation oncology, perhaps because she was the first patient killed by the treatment in 1896. As technology refinements have allowed more precision in ablating tumors and sparing healthy tissue, the processes have become more complex—now, with up to 25,000 variables of beam angles, energy intensity, dose distribution, etc. This piece describes a new Elekta “MR-linac” (i.e. magnetic resonance imaging and linear accelerator) that relies on a supercomputer to make the “variable” calculations. The MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston is the first in the US to have this technology. MORE
Image Credit: Philips