ONCORAY

ASG Superconductors' 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 in Dresden in the field of proton therapy and cancer treatment using real-time MRI imaging. 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 and immediately. 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.

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.