Doctors can now watch a beam of radiation move through a patient's body in real-time, and direct that beam precisely at a tumour
MR-Linac
Doctors at Sunnybrook's Odette Cancer Centre can now watch a beam of radiation move through a patient's body in real time and direct that beam precisely at a tumour. In the past, they could only estimate where a tumour might be based on images taken before the radiation treatment begins.
This new technology is called MR-Linac and it is the first machine in the world to combine radiation and high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). This hybrid technology lets doctors at the Odette Cancer Centre target tumours and monitor their response to radiation with unprecedented precision – even as a tumour moves inside the body – thanks to the machine's real-time MRI guidance.
Physicians will also be better able to avoid radiating and harming healthy tissue that surrounds tumours.
The MR-Linac will eventually be used to treat a wide range of cancers, from pancreatic to prostate to breast to incurable brain cancers.
As the first Canadian centre to install an MR-Linac, Sunnybrook's team remains at the forefront of cancer care, and an invaluable source of expertise and teaching for cancer ablation specialists across the country.
Information for patients
Are you a patient who wants to learn more about the MR-Linac, or who is interested in participating in a clinical trial using this machine?
Get more informationMR-LINAC dream team
Sunnybrook is one of the founding members of a seven-member consortium that tested and refined the MR-Linac and prepared the machine for the first human clinical trials.
The global consortium is made up of medical physicists, research scientists, radiation oncologists, working together with the common goal of advancing the entire field of MRI-guided radiation.
The consortium members:
- Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre (Toronto, Canada)
- Christie NHS Foundation Trust (Manchester, U.K.)
- University Medical Center Utrecht (Utrecht, Netherlands)
- University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (Houston, U.S.)
- Netherlands Cancer Institute-Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
- Froedtert & Medical College of Wisconsin Cancer Center (Milwaukee, U.S.)
- The Institute of Cancer Research/ Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust (London, U.K.)
Learn more
- First Sunnybrook pancreas patient treated on MR-Linac Elekta Unity (December 2022)
- Head and neck cancer patient receives first treatment on MR-Linac - Elekta Unity (March 2022)
- First Sunnybrook prostate patient treated on MR-Linac Elekta Unity (November 2019)
- Frightening moment leads to diagnosis — and treatment in a new trial (August 2019)
- First patient treatment on Sunnybrook's MR-Linac (August 2019)
- MR-Linac receives regulatory certification from Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (July 2019)
- First human images taken on Sunnybrook's MR-Linac (February 2019)
- First images taken on Sunnybrook's MR-Linac (May 2018)
- The MR-Linac: Game-changing radiation technology (May 2018)
- These first-in-Canada radiation technologies are improving cancer treatment (May 2018)
