University of Florida Health in Gainesville recently became the first site in the Southeastern U.S., and one of 42 worldwide, to house an imaging device combining extremely detailed MRI with precision radiotherapy, it said in an email to Becker's July 21.
The Elekta Unity MR-Linac, a 1.5-Tesla MRI-guided linear accelerator, required more than two years of construction, installation and training in the university's College of Medicine's department of radiation oncology at the UF Health Davis Cancer Pavilion.
"This technology provides more opportunities to improve our use of radiation therapy than we've ever had," said Robert Zlotecki, MD, PhD, a professor and vice chair for clinical affairs in the department of radiation oncology. "The 1.5-T MR-Linac allows us to visualize changes in the tumor or tumors with each daily treatment precisely delivered. We can probe the biology of cancers as we are treating by using predictive biomarkers of tumor response. Truly translational research can be achieved with this technology."