BATON ROUGE — The Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center now has access to the latest radiation oncology technology thanks to an extended partnership with Swedish medical device manufacturer Elekta.

Mary Bird Perkins was the first cancer center in the country to have the Elekta Harmony Pro radiation therapy treatment machine. According to the doctors who work with the machine, they treated the first patient with the machine in December 2024.

"It's meant to streamline the workflow so that treatments can be as fast as possible. We really appreciate that because we want to make sure that our patients have the highest possible quality of life, during and after treatment," Adaptive Radiation Therapy Technical Director Christopher Schneider said.

The Harmony Pro uses high-energy X-rays to treat patients from various angles to spread out the dose.

Another piece of Elekta technology Mary Bird Perkins is using is the Elekta Unity, a treatment that combines an MRI machine with radiation therapy.

"This machine allows us to see exactly what we're treating so that we can target it very precisely. It allows us to see the healthy tissues surrounding it so that we can avoid them and reduce the risk of side effects," Schneider said. "It also allows us to monitor, with a live image, the target while we are treating it in the middle of treatment so that we can pause the beam if the patient moves or has to cough. Anything like that, we can respond on the fly."

Mary Bird Perkins is the fifth clinic in the nation to have the Unity. They have been using it since 2023.

The last bit of Elekta equipment shown was called the Gamma Knife, which they've used for several years. It allows physicians to treat small areas within the brain without surgery by using precise gamma radiation beams that can treat a tumor or lesion from the outside.

"I'm astounded every day that I come to work at how far we've come and what amazing things we're able to do for our patients. The ability to see and replan for patients every day is the next step in personalized medicine," Schneider said.

Elekta and Mary Bird Perkins have had a partnership for around a decade, but it was expanded in October 2024.

"This expansion of that partnership is going to allow us to work together on a deeper level so that we have input into saying what machines we need and what tools would best help us serve our patients," Schneider said.

The cancer center is also serving as an Elekta reference site, allowing them to host other clinics to showcase the work they've been doing and to allow other centers to optimize their workflow.

Earlier this month, Mary Bird Perkins hosted Elekta’s North America Elekta Unity Users Meeting. Medical physicists, radiation therapists, radiation oncologists and other radiation therapy professionals from around the world toured the cancer center’s facility on Essen Lane to learn about the cancer care offered by the organization.

The cancer center says the meeting was the first of many working group meetings that will take place at the cancer center over the next few years.