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HCG Has Opened a Cancer Hospital in North Bengaluru With Karnataka's First MR-Linac — Real-Time MRI During Radiation Therapy Has Arrived in Our City

By Mustafa Shariff, Editor in Chief · May 26, 2026 · 2 min read

Summary

• HCG Hebbal: Karnataka's First MR-Linac and What It Means for Precision Cancer Care in North Bengaluru
• HCG has launched a comprehensive cancer hospital at Hebbal, North Bengaluru, featuring Karnataka's first Elekta Unity MR-Linac. Here is the full story of this technology and its significance.

"Cancer care today has become increasingly data-driven, technology-oriented and focused on improving long-term outcomes. Our goal is not only to prevent recurrences, but also to make even advanced and metastatic cancers manageable through personalised, multidisciplinary care. MR-Linac is a major upgrade to our oncology services."

HealthCare Global Enterprises Limited — India's largest dedicated cancer hospital network — has launched its new comprehensive cancer hospital in Byatarayanapura, Hebbal, North Bengaluru. The 1.75 lakh square foot facility, with a capacity of up to 132 beds, introduces Karnataka's first Elekta Unity MR-Linac: a radiation therapy system that combines a 1.5 Tesla magnetic resonance imaging scanner with a linear accelerator in a single integrated unit, enabling clinicians to visualise the tumour during radiation treatment and adapt the beam in real time to tumour movement and deformation.

The launch extends HCG's Bengaluru footprint beyond its established facilities in Kalyan Nagar and Bannerghatta Road into a geography that has historically been underserved by advanced oncology infrastructure despite its significant residential and commercial growth. North Bengaluru — spanning Hebbal, Yelahanka, Devanahalli, and the corridors toward the international airport — has a large and growing population that previously had to travel considerable distances for high-quality cancer care.

What Makes MR-Linac Different

Conventional radiation therapy — whether using standard linear accelerators, tomotherapy, or CyberKnife — is guided by CT-based planning scans acquired before the treatment course begins. These plans are generated on images that show anatomy at a specific moment in time, before treatment starts. Over the weeks of a radiation course, however, tumours change: they may shrink in response to treatment, shift position between sessions, or move during a single session as the patient breathes or as bladder and bowel filling changes. Conventional systems cannot see these changes during treatment and deliver radiation based on the original plan — requiring clinicians to add safety margins that inevitably irradiate more surrounding tissue than strictly necessary.

The Elekta Unity MR-Linac resolves this limitation through real-time MRI guidance. Before each fraction of radiation, a new MRI scan is acquired on the same platform in the same position, showing the tumour's current location, size, and relationship to surrounding organs. The radiation plan is then adapted to this current anatomy — a process called online adaptive radiotherapy — before treatment is delivered. During treatment itself, continuous MRI imaging monitors tumour and tissue movement, allowing the beam to follow the target and stop if critical structures move into the treatment zone.

The clinical implications are significant. For tumours near moving organs — the prostate (adjacent to the rectum and bladder), the pancreas (adjacent to the duodenum and stomach), liver metastases (moving with respiration), and rectal tumours — MR-Linac can deliver higher doses to the tumour with reduced margins and therefore reduced radiation dose to surrounding normal tissue. Multiple clinical studies have demonstrated that adaptive MR-guided radiotherapy achieves superior tumour coverage and reduced toxicity compared to conventional approaches for these anatomical sites.

The Full Technology Stack at HCG Hebbal

Beyond the MR-Linac, HCG Hebbal is designed as a full-spectrum oncology centre. Accuray TomoTherapy with Radixact provides a complementary radiation platform for cases not requiring MRI guidance during treatment. An 80-slice Digital PET-CT scanner provides the high-resolution metabolic imaging needed for accurate staging and response assessment. Five robotic-assisted modular operating theatres enable minimally invasive surgical oncology across multiple tumour sites. Nineteen chemotherapy daycare beds, 14 premium treatment bays, and a 15-bed ICU and HDU complete the acute care infrastructure. The hospital operates under HCG's multidisciplinary care model — with specialist teams across medical, surgical, and radiation oncology reviewing each case collaboratively.

Dr B.S. Ajaikumar, Founder and Chairman of HCG, framed the launch in the context of HCG's clinical philosophy: cancer care has become increasingly data-driven and technology-oriented, with the goal not only of preventing recurrences but of making even advanced and metastatic cancers manageable through personalised, multidisciplinary care. MR-Linac represents a major upgrade to oncology services and reinforces HCG's commitment to making technology-first cancer care more accessible.

BHC Perspective

At Bengaluru Health Community, the HCG Hebbal launch is the most significant new oncology infrastructure addition to Bengaluru's healthcare landscape this year — and it is in BHC's home city. Karnataka's first MR-Linac, operating within an integrated cancer hospital with robotic surgery and advanced imaging, represents the state of the art in cancer care made locally accessible for North Bengaluru's population. For BHC founders building in oncology technology, patient navigation platforms, or radiation oncology workflow tools — HCG Hebbal is a new anchor customer environment in our city.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is Karnataka's first MR-Linac?
A: The Elekta Unity MR-Linac at HCG Cancer Hospital Hebbal, North Bengaluru — a system combining a 1.5 Tesla MRI with a linear accelerator to enable real-time tumour visualisation and adaptive radiation therapy during treatment.

Q: How does MR-Linac improve cancer treatment?
A: It enables online adaptive radiotherapy — adapting the radiation plan to each day's tumour anatomy before treatment and monitoring tumour movement continuously during delivery. This allows higher tumour doses with smaller safety margins and reduced radiation to surrounding healthy tissue.

Q: What are HCG Hebbal's facilities?
A: 132 beds, 1.75 lakh sq ft at Byatarayanapura (Hebbal), Karnataka's first Elekta Unity MR-Linac, Accuray TomoTherapy with Radixact, 80-slice Digital PET-CT, 5 robotic-assisted OTs, 19 chemotherapy daycare beds, 15-bed ICU/HDU, operating under HCG's multidisciplinary care model.