Project: Metrology for MR guided radiotherapy

Cancer, the leading cause of death in Europe after cardiovascular disease, is responsible for roughly one in five deaths. Radiotherapy, which uses beams of ionising radiation to kill cancerous cells, is one of our most important defences against cancer and is used to treat around half of patients in Europe. One emerging technique, magnetic resonance (MR)-guided radiotherapy, provides real-time images of a patient during treatment, and offers more detailed and higher contrast images for the identification of tumours and soft tissues than conventional techniques. This boosts tumour targeting accuracy, reducing side-effects and increasing survival rates. Accurate radiation dose is crucial to the safe and effective treatment of patients, but radiation transport is strongly affected by the magnetic fields used in MR-guided radiotherapy. This project will develop new standards and measurement methods, adapted for MR-guided radiotherapy, to enable medical physicists to develop safe, accurate treatment plans. This metrological framework will support the clinical implementation of MR-guided radiotherapy, accelerating the rollout of this state-of-the-art treatment.

Acronym	15HLT08 MRgRT (Reference Number: 15HLT08)
Duration	01/06/2016 - 01/06/2019
Project Topic	Metrology
Project Results (after finalisation)	See Website
Website	visit project website
Network	EMPIR
Call	EMPIR CALL 2015

Project partner

Number	Name	Role	Country
1	VSL B.V.	Coordinator	Netherlands
2	Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives	Partner	France
3	NPL Management Limited	Partner	United Kingdom
4	Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt	Partner	Germany
5	Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum	Partner	Germany
6	Universitair Medisch Centrum Utrecht	Partner	Netherlands
7	The University of Manchester	Partner	United Kingdom
8	The Christie NHS Foundation Trust	Observer	United Kingdom
9	Eidgenössisches Institut für Metrologie METAS	Observer	Switzerland