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Prostate cancer, MRI-guided radiotherapy

MRI, Prostate, Toxicity

Research aim

The goal of MR-guided radiotherapy is further improve oncological outcome and reduce treatment related toxicity.

About us

On an annual basis more than 15,000 patients will receive the diagnosis of prostate cancer in the Netherlands. These men are often faced with a difficult choice between radical treatments such as surgery for prostate cancer or radiotherapy. Both these treatment modalities have different side effects and still cause substantial toxicity. With the MR-linac (combination of an MR-scanner and a linear accelerator for radiotherapy delivery) it now becomes possible to accurately treat patients with prostate cancer. Our groups main focus is to further improve cancer control and reduce treatment related toxicity. In the Utrecht region outcomes of different treatment modalities are registered within the Utrecht Prostate Cohort, this database gives relevant clinical, technical and patient reported outcome to further improve MRlinac treatment. Together with other MRlinac hospitals on a national and global level and the industry (ELEKTA and Philips) we perform both clinical and technical studies to accomplish these goals. Another important aspect is to reduce healthcare costs with the MRLinac, this becomes more relevant as the number of prostate cancer patients will substantially increase in the years to come due to an ageing population.