Mary’s story – treatment for liver cancer on the MRIdian MR Linac
Article
64-year-old Mary from Staffordshire was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer in 2014 and had been treated with surgery, conventional radiotherapy and chemotherapy when a scan revealed that her cancer had unfortunately spread to her liver. Her doctors felt neither surgery or conventional radiotherapy were an option because there were three tumours throughout her liver.
Instead, Mary was able to have treatment on the MRIdian – a ground-breaking new cancer technique which targets difficult-to-treat tumours – at the GenesisCare centre in Oxford. The MRIdian is a type of linear accelerator – a machine that directs beams of energy to permanently destroy cancer cells – combined with an in-built MRI scanner.
Mary underwent a course of five sessions over two weeks, with very few side effects other than a little tenderness. After 3 months an MRI scan showed that the liver tumours were almost completely gone, and a scan at six months showed no active cancer.
Mary has since been able to work full-time in her IT consultancy and spend time gardening. Ongoing drug therapy will help maximise the possibility of controlling her cancer. She said: “After years of running away from my cancer and different therapies, I feel I’ve been thrown a lifeline by receiving this revolutionary treatment.”
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