MR-Radiotherapy
The Department of Radiotherapy is part of the UMC Utrecht Center for Image Sciences. The department is a major participant in the graduate school Biomedical Image Sciences (ImagO) and part of the main research line Personalized Cancer Care of the University Medical Centre Utrecht. ImagO provides scientific courses on all aspects of medical imaging, radiotherapy physics, intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT). The department collaborates with a track clinical physics radiotherapy in the master's programme on Biomedical Image Sciences (BIS).
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Now that our new building has been finalized the department of Radiotherapy has available 11 Elekta linear accelerators for external beam radiotherapy. Three additional treatment rooms are dedicated to the development and clinical introduction of the MRL systems within the CBOI setting. The treatment preparation is being performed using a wide bore Philips CT and two (1.5 and 3.0T) MRI simulators (Philips Ingenia). The MRI guided brachytherapy is being performed on a dedicated wide bore 1.5T Ingenia in a dedicated HDR fault.
The main research line of the department is MRI guided radiotherapy (MRIgRT). A strong tradition also exists in the field of thermal research on radiofrequency exposure, especially the radiofrequency exposure within MRI systems.
The MRIgRT is a major line in the Centre of Image Guided Oncological Interventions (Centrum voor Beeldgestuurde Oncologische Interventies, CBOI), which is the oncology part of CIS. Within this centre the newest MRI guided tumour treatments are being investigated in a close collaboration between Radiotherapy, Radiology and our industrial partners Elekta and Philips. Examples are (i) the development of the MRI Linac (MRL) system for real time and on-line MRI guidance of external beam radiotherapy, (ii) the development of MRI guided brachytherapy, (iii) MRI based tumour characterization, delineation and treatment response assessment, (iv) the MRI guided high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) for tumour ablation and medicine deposition. (v) MRI guided radioembolization of liver tumours using Holmium microspheres.