HCA Healthcare UK has invested £15 million (€17.4 million) in an Elekta Unity MR-Linac at The Harley Street Clinic in London, combining high-resolution MRI with a linear accelerator to let clinicians visualise tumours during radiotherapy delivery. The installation is HCA UK's first MR-Linac globally and makes the clinic one of a small number of London providers offering MR-guided adaptive radiotherapy.

The system allows clinicians to adapt a patient's radiotherapy plan mid-session in response to changes in tumour position or shape, according to LaingBuisson.

Elekta Unity integrates a 7 MV linear accelerator with a 1.5T diagnostic MRI scanner within an online adaptive workflow, and received CE marking in 2018 followed by FDA approval the same year, according to a peer-reviewed study on the technology's international rollout. HCA UK said the approach could be particularly useful for cancers affected by movement within the body, including prostate and central lung tumours, allowing higher radiation doses while limiting exposure to surrounding healthy tissue.

"The ability to monitor and respond to tumour movement in real time allows clinicians to treat patients with greater accuracy and confidence, particularly where tumours have traditionally been difficult to target," said Dr John Conibear, clinical oncologist and radiotherapy lead clinician at HCA UK. He added that the technology had the potential to improve outcomes and reduce the number of treatment sessions needed by some patients.

"We're proud to be one of the first independent hospitals in London to offer advanced radiotherapy with the use of the MR-Linac at The Harley Street Clinic," said William Pressley, chief executive of The Harley Street Clinic. "This technology enables our expert teams to deliver highly precise, adaptive radiotherapy."

Treatment will be delivered by a multidisciplinary team of oncologists, physicists, dosimetrists and radiographers, led by consultant Dr Elena Moreno Olmedo. HCA UK has also joined the international Elekta MR-Linac Consortium, through which participating centres collaborate on research and clinical protocol development for the technology.

For the sector, the investment confirms that private hospital groups are competing on access to high-cost, precision cancer technology as a differentiator against both NHS and rival private oncology services.

Source: laingbuissonnews.com / ncbi.nlm.nih.gov