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Victorian cancer patients will have access to rare, cutting-edge technology at the Olivia Newton-John centre under an $18 million state government package.
Newton-John was at state parliament with Premier Daniel Andrews and Health Minister Jill Hennessy today to announce the funding for the machine, which will better treat tumours.
"I'm incredibly excited and incredibly grateful," Newton-John told reporters.
"I'm so thrilled that this is going to help other cancer patients who are going through things like I have been through with the metastasises. This new machine is going to be life-changing."
As part of the package, $8 million will go to the MRI-linear accelerator service, the first in Victoria and only the second in the southern hemisphere.
The MRI-linear machine will be ordered soon and treating patients from 2019.
It's expected to help about 200 patients a year.
Currently patients have an MRI scan before radiotherapy, but the new service will have an MRI in the treatment room, improving accuracy.
It will improve treatment for more difficult cancers such as brain, head, neck, pancreatic and liver cancers.
The remaining $10 million will go to establishing a research hub at the Olivia Newton-John centre.
Newton-John was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1992, the same weekend her father died from cancer.
The cancer wellness and research centre is a partnership between Austin Health and the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute.
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