Leo Cancer Care Releases Landmark Whitepaper: “Anatomical Variations Between Supine and Upright Positions Across Multiple Body Regions’”

Middleton, WI – 8^th December 2026 – Leo Cancer Care, the leader in upright radiotherapy and imaging solutions, today announced the release of a landmark whitepaper presenting the latest comparative study on upright versus supine imaging across multiple anatomical regions. The whitepaper, “Anatomical Variations Between Supine and Upright Positions Across Multiple Body Regions,” provides critical insights into how patient posture impacts anatomy, organ motion, and radiotherapy treatment planning.

A Comprehensive, Multi-Regional Study

Patient positioning is a key factor in radiotherapy, influencing organ motion, anatomical relationships, and dose distribution. While supine positioning has been the standard for most treatments, advancements and adoption of upright radiotherapy technology have created a need to understand posture-dependent anatomical changes.

This study analyzed 159 MRI scans across five anatomical regions: pelvis, abdomen, thorax, head and neck, and intracranial. Healthy volunteers were included in the study, with upright imaging performed at incremental inclinations of 0°, 20°, and 90° to quantify posture-dependent anatomical shifts.

Treatment Planning Conducted in RaySearch’s RayStation®

All treatment plans, including 64 paired supine and upright plans, were generated using RaySearch Laboratories’ RayStation treatment planning system, ensuring clinically relevant, state-of-the-art dosimetric calculations. Synthetic CTs derived from MRI scans enabled accurate dose calculation and plan evaluation. Plans were assessed for target coverage, organ-at-risk doses, and overall clinical acceptability by a panel of practicing radiation oncologists and medical physicists.

Professor of Radiation Oncology at Stanford Healthcare, Bill Loo who reviewed the thoracic data commented: “In summary, this review supports that upright treatment is expected to be at least clinically equivalent to conventional supine therapy for thoracic radiotherapy, and may have some advantages, particularly for patients who may have difficulty breathing in the supine position.”

Also reviewing the data set was Ben Durkee, Radiation Oncologist at UW Health commented: “Overall, I am satisfied that any anatomic variations introduced by upright positioning are less than the normal anatomical variations observed among individuals.

While it is still early days for upright radiotherapy treatments, the pre-clinical adoption of Leo Cancer Care’s solutions reflects the long-held belief in their potential advantages across multiple cancer indications. The findings from this study provide a strong foundation for further research, and excitement is growing as multiple Leo Cancer Care systems are scheduled to come online in 2026, enabling broader implementation and evaluation of the effects of upright patient positioning.

“These findings provide one of the most comprehensive datasets available on upright imaging and establish a foundation for the further research into anatomical differences between upright and supine positioning.” said Niek Schreuder, Chief Scientific Officer at Leo Cancer Care.

The Leo Cancer Care and RayStation are subject to regulatory clearance in some markets.