Elekta (EKTA-B.ST) today announced that the Odette Cancer Centre at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre has treated its first patient using Elekta Unity, a transformative magnetic resonance radiation therapy (MR/RT) system that enables personalized precision radiation therapy. Elekta Unity combines a state-of-the-art 1.5T MRI scanner, a best-in-class 7 MV linear accelerator and breakthrough real-time adaptive radiotherapy software. The combination of these technologies allows the radiation dose to be reshaped based on daily changes in shape, size and position of the tumor and surrounding healthy anatomy, as visualized with MRI, and then enables accurate dose delivery with real-time visualization of the tumor.
On August 15, Odette Cancer Centre started treating its first patient using Elekta Unity. The patient is receiving treatment for a glioblastoma brain tumor.
“Radiation oncologists have long sought the ability to see the tumors we treat in real time and to adapt treatment based on daily changes to the tumor and the patient’s anatomy,” said Arjun Sahgal, MD, head of Odette’s Cancer Ablation Therapy Program. “As a founding member of the Elekta MR-linac Consortium that developed the technology behind Elekta Unity, the Sunnybrook team has made significant contributions to making this vision a reality. We are gratified that our efforts will now benefit our patients. Elekta Unity will enable us to deliver higher doses of radiation while sparing healthy tissue and help patients to complete their treatment more quickly. It will also allow us to use radiation therapy for hard to treat cancers for which traditional radiation therapy approaches may not be feasible.”
“Elekta Unity received clearance from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission just a few weeks ago, and we are excited that this groundbreaking precision radiation medicine system is now available to Canadian cancer patients,” said Richard Hausmann, Elekta President and CEO. “I would like to personally thank Dr. Sahgal and everyone at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre for the important role they played in the designing the technological tour de force that allows us to finally integrate MR images with an advanced linac radiation delivery system. We share with them not only a passion for innovation but also compassion for cancer patients. We are pleased that they now have an important new tool for optimizing patient outcomes and reducing patients’ treatment burden.”
