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Department of Radiation Oncology

Radiation Oncology

About Radiation Oncology

The Radiation Oncology Department at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) is one of the premier radiation treatment programs in the world. We are the radiation therapy team for Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Dana-Farber Brigham Cancer Center, and Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center. Our care providers will work with you and your other cancer care providers as a team to develop and implement a safe, customized radiation therapy plan that’s right for you.

New Innovative Treatments

Dana-Farber Brigham Cancer Center is proud to be the first cancer center in New England to offer access to cutting-edge, MRI-guided radiation therapy. It is a new high-precision radiation treatment that targets tumors with high doses of radiation while minimizing damage to normal healthy tissues. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) uses powerful magnets to generate images of your body and has several advantages over traditional X-ray-based imaging, including:

  • Improved targeting of cancers located in soft tissues, including cancers of the breast, gastrointestinal tract, head and neck, lung, prostate, uterus and cervix, and a variety of other locations.
  • Continuous imaging to track the location of the tumor during treatment.

This new MRI-guided radiation technology available at our center will help us to target your cancer more accurately and adapt the radiation plan based on where your cancer and organs are moving each day.

For the first time, cancer patients in New England will have a cutting-edge option for radiation treatment, known as MRI-Guided Radiation Therapy (MRI-RT). This video highlights the two components of the new MRI-RT, a 3 Tesla MRI scanner modified for radiation therapy planning called the MR Advanced Procedure and Simulation (MAPS) unit and an integrated MRI-guided linear accelerator (MRI-LINAC). The MAPS unit includes a high-field strength (3.0T) magnet for diagnostic quality imaging for initial radiation therapy planning. The MRI-LINAC, meanwhile, is a state-of-the-art hybrid device that integrates a modified, lower-field (0.35T) MRI scanner with a linear accelerator (radiation delivery machine) to reduce the magnetic interference on the radiation beam.

An Expression of Gratitude for Compassionate Care

In Memoriam

Lina Lavitsky, 30, of San Francisco, California passed away from brain cancer on the morning of Tuesday, June 14th, 2022. Gifts in her memory can be made to support the Brain Tumor Research fund at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Click here to donate.

Learn more about Brigham and Women's Hospital


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About BWH