A Review of the Australian MRI Linac Program: From Pie in the Sky to Research Milestone

The Australian Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Linear Accelerator program (MRI linac) was a major research project that aimed to build and test a unique MRI linac prototype for cancer treatment. It aimed to improve radiotherapy anatomical targeting and explore physiological targeting. The purpose of this report is to summarise the development and achievements of the program so as to provide an example of a successful large-scale research project in Australian radiation oncology. The project involved six Australian universities and international collaborators. We developed and built a unique MRI linac configuration comprising a 1 T magnetic field and a 6 MV accelerator, with the beam delivered in line with B₀ and the patient placed across B₀ in the split between the two halves of the magnet. The broad research domains were personalised disease targeting, medical device innovation, and biodiscovery. Specific projects included Artificial Intelligence image enhancement, radiation dosimetry in high magnetic fields, MRI characterisation of cancer heterogeneity in human tumours, and animal and human studies. Over $27 million was obtained to support the program from competitive sources. The program published over 120 papers and supported 25 PhD completions. The learnings from the Australian MRI linac program are that Australia has world-class radiotherapy research in physics and engineering, that major projects need a lot of time and a lot of collaboration, and that large, novel radiotherapy projects can attract significant funding and produce significant results.