Elekta and Royal Philips Electronics announced that The Netherlands Cancer Institute-Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital has signed an agreement to join a research group to advance the development of ground-breaking image-guided treatment technology for cancer care. The technology merges radiation therapy and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology in a single system. NKI-AVL is the third member of the research consortium, which will comprise leading radiation oncology centers and clinicians, and already includes the University Medical Center Utrecht and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Uniting MRI with a cutting edge radiation therapy system will provide physicians with exceptional images of a patient’s soft tissues and tumor during radiation therapy. This innovation also aims to permit clinicians to adapt treatment delivery in real time for the most precise cancer treatments possible.
Prior to the establishment of the research consortium, Elekta, Philips and the University Medical Center Utrecht built and tested a prototype system that integrates a linear accelerator and a 1.5 Tesla MRI system. The success of these efforts enabled the project to move to the next phase of development and testing by the growing select group of consortium partners.
