Conventional radiotherapy approaches use CT scans to target tumours both prior to treatment and during the treatment itself.

Although this delivers increased accuracy, soft tissue definition of the prostate is relatively poor, meaning that we need to treat wider margins, including more healthy tissue. This can potentially mean that patients experience worse side effects.

All prostate radiotherapy techniques use intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) and image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT) to improve accuracy and reduce the radiation dose to healthy tissue. The MR-Linac takes this accuracy further:

Greater precision

• Radiotherapy is planned on an MRI scan meaning that the prostate is better defined and treatment margins can be reduced. This minimises the dose of radiation to healthy organs, which can result in fewer severe side effects for you.

Daily adaption

• Although the prostate and surrounding tissues can change in shape and position daily, conventional prostate radiotherapy follows and delivers the same plan, every day.
• On the MR-Linac, each treatment is instead replanned on the day by the consultant-led team on site, before treatment begins. This real time adaption of the plan means that the prostate position that day is always accurately represented.

Continuous real-time visualisation

• During the treatment itself, the prostate and surrounding organs can routinely move, and this is usually not picked up. On the MR-Linac, the treatment is monitored in real time. If there’s a significant move in the prostate or surrounding organs during the treatment, it’s stopped and only restarted when the team is happy.
• This helps us to hit exactly the right place, with exactly the right dose in every session. This level of accuracy also allows us to re-irradiate the prostate in cases where a localised cancer comes back following conventional radiotherapy.