For patients inside a special MRI coil with a head positioning solution it can be much more so. For many patients, lying still in the open-bore of an MRI scanner can be daunting enough. Getting the high-quality MRI images needed for precision radiation therapy planning and simulation, and accurately establishing the tumor’s exact coordinates, typically requires the patient to lie with their head inside a special MRI coil, held in a consistent position using a custom-made thermoplastic mask to prevent head movement between procedures. Since the patient must be moved from the scanner into the LINAC, it is crucial that the precise 3D coordinates of the tumor are known and transferred to the LINAC, so the tumor can be accurately targeted. In many cases MRI has an advantage over CT in terms of MRI’s better soft-tissue imaging. Patients undergoing radiotherapy for brain or head and neck tumors need a pre-treatment CT or MRI scan to accurately delineate their tumor so it can be precisely targeted with tumor destroying radiation in a linear accelerator (LINAC), while minimizing damage to surrounding tissue.
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