Orlando Health to bring benefits of MRI-guided radiation therapy to Central Florida

Orlando Health will soon begin providing a new therapy that allows oncologists to see the tumor they are treating continuously during radiation therapy. It's a cancer-fighting technology called MRIdian® that will be installed at the new comprehensive cancer center being built at Health Central Hospital in Ocoee, Florida, in partnership with UF Health Cancer Center - Orlando Health.

The MRIdian System from ViewRay® Inc. (Nasdaq: VRAY) enables cancer specialists to deliver truly personalized and adaptive radiation therapy. It provides a unique combination of simultaneous radiation therapy and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for the treatment of cancer. With MRIdian, physicians will be able to directly view and track the tumor during treatment and adapt to changes in the tumor and surrounding tissue. Additionally, because it uses MRI technology instead of computed tomography (CT) scans, MRIdian is able to reduce the level of radiation exposure.

"As we open our new cancer center at Health Central Hospital in Ocoee, we're excited to be able to bring the benefits of MRI-guided radiation therapy to Central Florida," said Dr. Daniel Buchholz, chairman of radiation oncology at Orlando Health. "The ability to track the movement of tumors and nearby anatomy in real time, and adjust our treatment plan to those changes, will allow us to more accurately target the tumor and spare surrounding healthy tissue, resulting in the best possible outcomes for our patients."

Health Central Hospital is a full-service community hospital serving patients in west Orange County. The $30 million Cancer Center at Health Central is expected to open in December 2018, with MRIdian patient treatments commencing at that time.