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MRIdian Viewray Experience
Making a decision related to which radiation machine one uses seems to be something that does not get a lot of discussion by urologists and radiation oncologists in terms of the differences, other than their success with the machine they use. I chose the MRIdian Viewray. There are multiple choices with different capability and toxicity risks.
I had my first treatment, out of 5, on January 31. I had spaceoar gel inserted. The machine is both a radiation and MRI built into one unit. They can see healthy tissue and the cancer in real time and adjust accordingly using the machines dynamic mapping capability, if necessary. They used 2 mm margins based on a recent randomized trial called Mirage. The machine turns off automatically if your internals move and the radiation goes outside the mapped out area. No pain or real side effects after the first treatment. Second treatment is on Friday. My prostate cancer is contained within the prostate and I am almost 70 with Gleason 3+4 on one core and 3+3 on another. Psa was 10.2.
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I did ViewRay in March at UCLA MRIdian, no SpaceOar or markers .
Doing great, no issues with anything
Interesting. Thought SpaceOar was beneficial and generally standard for MRIdian. Is this something new at UCLA?
Steinberg told me that with the MRIdian SBRT they are not actually seeing any difference in side effects and they were starting to see some side effects from SpaceOar. It is fairly rare to have an issue but it can displace the cancer and also sometimes doesn’t sit exactly where they want. Plus when side effects happen they are not good. I had a friend who had a section of bowel removed because it infiltrated. So with them telling me they are seeing no difference with MRIdian and that there was no reason for me to get it and my friend having an issue I skipped it and don’t have any issues. Maybe the advice is based on your specific cancer and where it is since they have the ability to be very focal. I’ve also heard Barrigel is better. Unless ViewRay gets bought out soon I imagine this is all moot since they are stopping support the end of this month.
I did the mridian in February. They had just completed the Mirage randomized trial which showed significant results regarding side effects benefits over other forms of photon radiation machines. It was the built in real time mri and smaller margins that seemed to have made a difference. I would guess that they will not throw the baby out with the bathwater and someone will buy the tech given its effectiveness, without the company debt.
I also had the spaceoar but I had a spaceoar tech from the company in the operating room. All 5 of the RO's I consulted with were in favor of spaceoar but nobody used the word standard for the mridian or proton or any other procedure. My brother also had spaceoar and the mridian in NY city at Weill Cornell. No issues, other than, for him, side effects from Lupron.
Where did you hear that they will non longer support MRIdian after this month? I don’t see that in any press releases or news stories.
It’s around, they went chapter 11 and are now a chapter 7. People going for treatment are being told. The next big hope is the new Cyberknife Genesis MRLinac that is in trials available in 2 years unless somebody miraculously buys View Ray
"ViewRay was unable to secure a financial partner or a purchaser and will cease all operations. To limit the impact to patients and customers, ViewRay will provide MRIdian service support through October 25, 2023. During this wind-down period, ViewRay has a limited budget and will use all commercially reasonable efforts to support MRIdian programs. After the wind-down period, ViewRay will cease to exist as a company and all quality, regulatory, service support, parts, upgrades, and clinical research support for the MRidian system will no longer be available"
Thanks for providing this information. I was looking into MRIdian earlier this year until they declared bankruptcy in July. Last month I saw some comments here and on other forums that gave me some hope that service and support might continue for this system. Did the quote above come from ViewRay?
It apparently came from a viewray patient who was sent that. Also on the newly diagnosed Facebook group there is a member going to UCLA who was told the support would be ending in the middle of his treatment unless he switched to 5 in a row. I explained I did 5 in a row but choice and it all went well. It’s a real shame, hard to do better than the MRLinac with gating and tracking. There is Elekta but I think they are revamping their machines. There is a newer Cyberknife S7 until their MRLinac comes out.
Terrible news. I just finished Mridian Viewray at ucla on Sept 15. I can credit Ben on this chain for leading me to that treatment choice.
It would be a disaster if someone doesn’t buy the rights to the MRIdian technology which currently seems to be the state of the art in radiation treatments… There are some big medical equipment companies out there who could.. ISRG( Intuitive Surgical) who developed the DaVinci robotic system used for prostatectomies certainly could… What better way to round out their prostate( and other ) cancer treatment offerings??? Crossing fingers that someone steps up…