Comparison of treatment plans for a high-field MRI-linac and a conventional linac for esophageal cancer.

Applying conventional target volume and margin concepts as well as dose-fractionation prescription reveals clinically acceptable dose distributions using hybrid MRI-linac in its current configuration compared to standard IMRT/VMAT. This represents an important prerequisite for future studies to investigate the clinical benefit of MRI-guided radiotherapy exploiting the conceptional advantages such as reduced margins, plan adaptation and biological individualization and hypofractionation.