David Clark has a trick for passing the time inside the confines of the MR-Linac, the first machine to combine precision radiation therapy with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

The avid golfer pictures his favourite fairway.

“It gets my mind off things,” he says. “It might even help my game.”

Diagnosed with prostate cancer last year, David says he had two options: surgery or radiation. He was referred to Sunnybrook radiation oncologist Dr. Jay Detsky.

“My wife Ellen and I liked him straight away,” recalls David. “He had confidence, and we liked the idea of being part of a study with the new MR-Linac.”

As Dr. Detsky explained, Sunnybrook is one of a few hospitals in the world evaluating the efficacy of the MR-Linac. At that time, Sunnybrook was just beginning a trial for prostate cancer.

David was eager to participate and soon became one of the first patients in the trial that launched in November 2019.

“I tell patients like David that the MR-Linac is a technological marvel,” says Dr. Detsky. The ability to take MRI pictures before, during and after treatment allows specialists like him to evaluate exactly how radiation is delivered to a tumour. “That real-time feedback is unlike anything else.”

While David is grateful for his treatments, in a way he’s always felt part of the Sunnybrook family. As a young boy, he could see the hospital from his bedroom window. Years later, David and Ellen would frequent the Emergency Department as they raised three rambunctious sons, Andrew, Jim and Rob.

Says David: “Sunnybrook has always been there, and this experience reminded me of that.”