Background On an annual basis more than 15,000 patients will receive the diagnosis of prostate cancer in the Netherlands. These men are often faced with a difficult choice between radical treatments such as surgery for prostate cancer or radiotherapy. Both these treatment modalities have different side effects and still cause substantial toxicity. With the MR-linac (combination of an MR-scanner and a linear accelerator for radiotherapy delivery) it now becomes possible to accurately treat patients with prostate cancer. Our groups main focus is to further improve cancer control and reduce treatment related toxicity. In the Utrecht region outcomes of different treatment modalities are registered within the Utrecht Prostate Cohort (UPC), this database gives relevant clinical, technical and patient reported outcome to further improve MRlinac treatment. Together with other MRlinac hospitals on a national and global level and the industry (ELEKTA and Philips) we perform both clinical and technical studies to accomplish these goals. Another important aspect is to reduce healthcare costs with the MRLinac, this becomes more relevant as the number of prostate cancer patients will substantially increase in the years to come due to an ageing population. With the TURBO trial we aim to become more cost-effective. In this trial patients are randomized between a scheme of 2 versus 5 fractions prostate radiotherapy, another important goal of the experimental 2 fraction radiotherapy arm to the prostate is to further improve oncological outcomes as a boost is administered to the visible tumor on the prostate MRI-scan. Our group is also specialized in MR-Linac treatment of locally recurrent prostate cancer after prior radiotherapy. The main goal of this focal salvage MR-Linac treatment is to prevent/postpone hormonal therapy as it is associated with significant toxicity.

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Keywords: MR-guided Radiotherapy | Genitourinary Tumors | Prostate Cancer

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Email: j.r.n.vandervoortvanzyp@umcutrecht.nl | UMC Utrecht | ResearchGate | LinkedIn