ASG Superconductors' (ASG) MgB2 superconducting technology already in use for energy and medical applications such as the world's only truly open MROpenEVO magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system is at the heart of the worldwide innovation presented today in Dresden in the field of proton therapy and cancer treatment using real time MRI imaging.
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In fact, MRI offers the advantage over conventional imaging modalities of being able to visualise tumours with unsurpassed soft tissue image contrast.
This makes it possible to better delineate the tumour from the surrounding healthy tissue and to more precisely define the volume to be irradiated.
In addition, MRI guidance is able to map changes in the shape and size of the volume to be irradiated that occurs between successive treatment sessions, allowing the application of radiation to be adjusted individually.
One of the key points of this scientific and technological breakthrough, which will have an impact on cancer treatment, is precisely the real-time MRI, which makes it possible to visualise the movement of the tumour during an irradiation session and to synchronise it with the application of radiation.
With the prototype presented in Germany at Oncoray, the National Centre for Radiation Research in Oncology, it will in fact be possible, for the first time in the world, to study the extent to which the accuracy of proton therapy can be improved with the guidance of real-time MRI for the whole body.
The prototype, based on the ASG technology already used for the MROpenEVO system, the only MRI in the world with a completely open design and MgB2 cryogen-free superconductive technology, will be used to demonstrate through scientific studies the added value of this new treatment modality for tumours in the chest, abdomen and pelvis.
The development and installation as well as commissioning were made possible thanks to the close collaboration with international technological and industrial partners such as ASG Superconductors, which, besides being the manufacturer of the MRI device used as a base, holds historical expertise in the development, design and manufacture of superconducting MRI magnets from 0.5T up to Ultra High Field 11.7T, while the company MagnetTx Oncology Solutions, Edmonton/Canada, designed the rotating technology part. ■