Which Technology Advancements Have Improved Radiotherapy Care?

Over the past decades, radiotherapy has become more accurate and precise, sparing patients from unnecessary and excessive toxicity. Among the technologies that have experienced rapid advancement is imaging. Coming in the form of CT scanning and MRI imaging, radiation oncologists are able to locate the areas of the body in need of radiation more safely.

On this topic, surrounding the 2025 American Society of Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Annual Meeting, CancerNetwork® spoke with Pat Price, MA, MD, FRCR, FRCP, about the landscape of radiotherapy in the 21st century, and some of the most significant technological advances. Adaptive radiotherapy and the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into contouring were among developments of note that she highlighted.

Price is a visiting professor of Oncology at Imperial College London, in London, England; the chair of Radiotherapy UK; and the co-founder and chair of the Global Coalition for Radiotherapy.

Read the full report here: Adaptive Radiotherapy | Precision Cancer Treatment

Transcript:

How have more advanced imaging technologies affected the use of radiotherapy?

I am old enough to remember the days before CT scanning. Can you believe it? Cross-sectional imaging—CT scanning or MRI—Is useful. Some are better in some areas than others; one is not necessarily better than the other for different places. We have conventionally planned on CT because there’s a technical side to it to work out the dose using the CT, but now we can integrate the MR. Anything that helps us more accurately localize the tumor, so we know where it is and where we want to treat…is fantastic. Also, [enhanced imaging enables us] to do adaptive radiotherapy. That means when you are on treatment––you are lying on the bed for 2 minutes having the radiotherapy, you are breathing and you are moving, your organs are moving––the imaging while we are giving treatment now allows us to adapt to this. You can imagine, even if you have some rectal filling or if you have somebody breathing, we can adapt the treatment so that it all stays within [the target area] and protects the normal tissue. It’s amazing.

We are so advanced in radiotherapy that we are already using AI in those machines to do that; we are using AI in contouring and planning. A lot of people are excited about MR in diagnostics and mammography; we were [doing that] years ago in radiotherapy, and we are moving forward at a pace—there’s more clever software, and more innovation from companies.

The other beautiful thing with radiotherapy is that it’s such a small world. In the UK, we treat over 100,000 patients with radiotherapy a year. The workforce is only 4500. It’s tiny compared with [the patients]. It’s multidisciplinary; therapy radiographers work with physicists and clinicians, but also work with industry because they can help each other. “You’ve got a new technique? We need that. We need that.” [It is] constant iteration.

Radiotherapy is only as good as the kit and the people, and once they work together, then things happen. It’s 1 big family working together to give the best care to the patient. What’s wonderful about the radiotherapy companies is that they want what is best for patient outcomes. We want to cause more cure. Radiotherapy itself is a curative modality. How do we make sure we give it to the right people, in the right way, to maximize that benefit?

Reference

Precision targeting, global impact: cancer radiotherapy in the 21st century. AboutAdaptive. 2025. Accessed October 6, 2025. https://tinyurl.com/4rah5v6k