ViewRay, Inc. announces that Northside Hospital in Georgia has selected MRIdian MRI-guided radiation therapy system to expand radiation therapy treatment services at its Northside Hospital Cancer Institute in Atlanta. The MRIdian system will enable the team at the Cancer Institute to offer the MR-guided radiation therapy technology to patients seeking cancer treatment for lung, prostate, pancreas, liver cancers, and other small tumors in abdominal and pelvic areas.

“As a leader in cancer care in Georgia, we are excited add the MRIdian system to our treatment services for cancer patients, particularly those patients who may not have had viable treatment options,” says Ajaykumar Patel, MD, radiation oncology, Northside Hospital Cancer Institute. “MRIdian will allow us to practice personalized and precision medicine and continue to lead the way with cutting-edge technology in the metro Atlanta area.”

“Expanding MRIdian SMART (stereotactic MR-guided adaptive radiotherapy) with Northside Hospital is a significant milestone for patients in the southeast,” adds Paul Ziegler, chief commercial officer at ViewRay. “As a premier health provider in Atlanta, we look forward to working with the Northside team on a combined mission to improve the lives of cancer patients.”

The MRIdian system provides oncologists advanced anatomical visualization through diagnostic-quality MR images and the ability to adapt a radiation therapy plan to the targeted cancer with the patient on the table. This combination allows physicians to define tight treatment margins to avoid unnecessary radiation exposure of vulnerable nearby organs-at-risk and allows the delivery of ablative radiation doses in five or fewer treatment sessions, without relying on implanted markers. 

By providing real-time continuous tracking of the target and surrounding healthy tissues, MRIdian enables automatic gating of the radiation beam if the target moves outside the user-defined margins. This allows for delivery of the prescribed dose to the target, while sparing surrounding healthy tissue and critical structures, which results in minimizing toxicities typically associated with conventional radiation therapy.