Elekta AB: How a Quiet Oncology Specialist Is Re?engineering Cancer Treatment

Elekta AB is turning radiation oncology from a blunt instrument into a precision platform, fusing imaging, software, and hardware to compete head?on with Varian, Accuray and Philips.

The New Arms Race in Cancer Care

Cancer care is in the middle of a fundamental shift. Hospitals are under pressure to treat more patients, with higher precision, fewer side effects, and tighter budgets. At the center of this transformation sits Elekta AB, a Stockholm?based specialist in radiation therapy systems, software, and services. While the ticker Elekta Aktie tends to attract the attention of investors, the real story is the underlying product ecosystem that has quietly become one of the most critical platforms in oncology departments worldwide.

Elekta AB is not a single physical device; it is a tightly connected portfolio of linear accelerators, MR?guided radiotherapy systems, treatment planning software, oncology information systems, and digital platforms that together define how radiation therapy is planned, delivered, and monitored. In practice, Elekta AB is the product identity of this integrated suite: the company sells hardware like Elekta Unity and Elekta Harmony, but the commercial and clinical value comes from how these systems plug into software such as Monaco, MOSAIQ Plaza and the Elekta ONE digital backbone.

As cancer incidence rises and health systems struggle with staffing shortages and financial constraints, radiation oncology is forced to do more with less. That is precisely the problem Elekta AB is trying to solve: enable clinicians to deliver faster, more targeted treatments using adaptive workflows, automation, and real?time imaging, while keeping capital and operating costs within reach for public and private providers.

Inside the Flagship: Elekta AB

To understand Elekta AB as a product, you need to look at three pillars: treatment delivery systems, software and data platforms, and clinical workflows. Together, they form a modular but interdependent ecosystem that hospitals can scale from a single linear accelerator to a multi?site, multi?modality cancer center.

The flagship technology within Elekta AB is its radiation therapy hardware portfolio. This includes the Elekta Harmony linac, the Versa HD high?definition radiotherapy platform, and the Elekta Unity MR?linac, which combines high?field MRI with a linear accelerator in a single system. Elekta Unity is especially important: it is designed for adaptive radiotherapy, where the treatment is dynamically adjusted based on real?time imaging of the tumor and surrounding healthy tissue.

The integration of MRI into the treatment machine is a major differentiator. Traditional systems rely on CT scans acquired before the treatment course, and clinicians plan several weeks of therapy based on those fixed images. With Elekta Unity, physicians can visualize soft tissue anatomy during every treatment session, adjust margins, and adapt the radiation dose daily. This is particularly relevant for tumors that shift or deform between sessions, such as in the pancreas, liver, or prostate.

Alongside Unity, Elekta Harmony and Versa HD focus on throughput, efficiency, and versatility. Harmony is marketed as a more compact, efficient linac with workflow?optimized features for busy, constrained clinics. Versa HD supports advanced techniques such as stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) and stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), delivering high doses with fine spatial precision while managing motion and minimizing dose to surrounding healthy structures.

Where Elekta AB really scales is in its software stack. The Monaco treatment planning system uses Monte Carlo dose calculation algorithms to simulate how radiation interacts with patient anatomy with high accuracy. MOSAIQ Plaza, Elekta’s oncology information system suite, handles scheduling, imaging, treatment records, and documentation across a radiotherapy department. Layered on top, Elekta ONE functions as a cloud?enabled platform that promises to unify data from multiple systems, enable remote monitoring, analytics, and standardized workflows across networks.

In practice, that means a hospital using Elekta AB can centralize treatment planning for multiple sites, standardize protocols, and push updates or new care pathways across an entire region. The company has also been pushing AI?assisted contouring and adaptive workflows, where machine learning helps delineate organs at risk and tumors on imaging studies to speed up planning and reduce inter?observer variation.

Elekta AB’s unique selling proposition lies in this combination: high?end imaging?guided hardware, regulatory?approved treatment planning and information software, and a gradual shift toward cloud?based orchestration. Rather than selling standalone machines, Elekta AB positions itself as a platform for precision radiation medicine.

The product strategy also deliberately targets a wide spectrum of healthcare markets. Elekta Harmony is aimed at emerging and cost?sensitive regions that need robust, reliable linacs with lower total cost of ownership. Unity and Versa HD, by contrast, target academic centers and leading cancer institutes that compete on innovation and complex case capabilities. Connecting them all through the same software and data layer is what gives Elekta AB leverage in long?term contracts and service agreements.

Market Rivals: Elekta Aktie vs. The Competition

Elekta AB does not operate in a vacuum. Radiation oncology is dominated by a handful of global players, and the competition is fierce. The relevant comparison is not just company versus company, but product ecosystem versus product ecosystem.

The most direct rival is Varian Medical Systems, now part of Siemens Healthineers. Varian’s flagship products include the TrueBeam and Halcyon linear accelerator platforms, and the Ethos system for adaptive radiotherapy. Compared directly to Varian TrueBeam, Elekta Harmony and Versa HD focus on flexibility and open?architecture integration with third?party imaging and hospital IT systems. TrueBeam is highly regarded for reliability and broad protocol support, but clinics often point to tighter integration within the Varian closed ecosystem as both a strength and a potential lock?in risk.

Varian Ethos is the benchmark for CT?based adaptive radiotherapy. Ethos can adapt treatment plans based on daily cone?beam CT scans, using AI?driven contouring and fast optimization. In contrast, Elekta Unity brings MRI into the loop, offering superior soft?tissue contrast. Ethos tends to have advantages in workflow speed and simplicity in certain indications, while Unity’s MR?guidance can be superior for tumors where CT contrast is insufficient or when organ motion is particularly challenging.

Another competitor is Accuray, known for the CyberKnife and Radixact systems. Compared directly to Accuray CyberKnife, which specializes in robotic radiosurgery for very precise, high?dose treatments, Elekta Versa HD and Elekta Gamma Knife (for intracranial indications) form Elekta AB’s answer in the stereotactic segment. CyberKnife’s robotic arm and non?isocentric delivery are powerful for certain small targets, but Elekta’s combination of Gamma Knife for brain and Versa HD for body SRS offers clinics a broader continuum of use cases, especially when integrated with Elekta’s planning software.

Philips, meanwhile, is a formidable imaging and informatics competitor rather than a linac manufacturer. Compared directly to Philips oncology informatics platforms, such as IntelliSpace Oncology, Elekta’s MOSAIQ Plaza and Elekta ONE are more tightly coupled to the treatment delivery layer. Philips has strength in cross?modality imaging, data aggregation, and vendor?neutral archives, but lacks its own radiotherapy hardware. As a result, Philips often partners with linac vendors, including Elekta in some markets, whereas Elekta AB pitches a more vertically integrated value proposition in radiation oncology.

There are also regional competitors producing linear accelerators at lower price points, particularly in China and India, but they often lack the depth of software, adaptive workflows, and global service networks that Elekta AB and Varian can offer. For complex indications, multi?site coordination, and regulatory compliance in North America and Europe, the battle is effectively Elekta AB versus Varian’s portfolio, with Accuray playing a specialist role and Philips, GE, and Siemens Healthineers pushing from the imaging and software side.

Clinically, the trade?offs between these ecosystems come down to a few themes: imaging quality (CT versus MR), workflow speed, interoperability with existing hospital IT, and cost over the lifetime of the systems. Elekta AB’s emphasis on open standards and integration appeals to hospitals wary of full lock?in to one vendor, while some competitors offer more rigid, highly optimized end?to?end stacks that can simplify deployment but limit flexibility.

The Competitive Edge: Why it Wins

Elekta AB’s competitive edge rests on four main pillars: MR?guided adaptive therapy, software?driven workflows, open ecosystem philosophy, and value?oriented segmentation.

First, MR?guided radiotherapy is not just a buzzword. By embedding an MRI scanner into a linear accelerator, Elekta Unity enables clinicians to see soft tissue structures in real time during treatment. That can translate into smaller margins around tumors, lower dose to healthy tissues, and the potential for dose escalation in certain cancers. As payers and regulators increasingly look for outcome?based evidence, the ability to personalize dose based on anatomy at each fraction could become a powerful differentiator.

Second, Elekta AB understands that software is the real sticky layer. Treatment planning and oncology information systems lock in workflows, data formats, training, and reporting practices. Once a department has built its protocols and quality assurance processes around Monaco and MOSAIQ, switching becomes costly and disruptive. By investing in AI?powered contouring, adaptive planning, and cloud?enabled management via Elekta ONE, the company is turning its installed base into a recurring software and services revenue engine.

Third, the open ecosystem approach matters. Many healthcare providers run heterogeneous imaging fleets and legacy IT infrastructures. Elekta AB’s products are designed to integrate with multiple modalities and vendor systems, from diagnostic imaging to hospital information systems. This stands in contrast to more closed, proprietary stacks that may deliver elegance at the cost of flexibility. For large cancer networks that have grown via mergers and acquisitions, the ability to stitch together different sites and systems is a substantial advantage.

Fourth, Elekta AB has carefully segmented its hardware portfolio to align with global market tiers. Elekta Harmony focuses on cost?conscious centers that still require up?to?date technology, with a smaller footprint and efficiency?oriented design. Versa HD targets advanced techniques and higher?end care. Unity is the premium MR?linac showpiece for institutions seeking to differentiate themselves competitively and academically. This tiered strategy allows Elekta AB to battle low?cost manufacturers at the entry level while competing on innovation and outcomes at the top.

From a total cost of ownership perspective, Elekta AB often positions itself as more flexible and, over time, more economical than some rivals, especially when taking into account software licensing, service contracts, and upgrade paths. Hospitals can start with a standard linac and progressively add advanced capabilities and software modules, rather than committing upfront to a fully loaded system.

It is also worth noting that Elekta AB’s focus on radiotherapy, radiosurgery, brachytherapy, and oncology software gives it a clearer strategic narrative than conglomerates balancing multiple divisions. The company’s R&D agenda is heavily concentrated on radiation oncology, which can make it more responsive to clinical feedback and emerging treatment paradigms such as hypofractionation (fewer, higher?dose sessions) and adaptive workflows.

There are weaknesses. MR?guided systems like Unity are capital?intensive, require more sophisticated shielding and infrastructure, and demand cross?disciplinary teams of radiologists, radiation oncologists, physicists, and therapists comfortable with complex workflows. Varian’s CT?based adaptive approach via Ethos can be easier to scale in some environments. But for centers committed to pushing the boundaries of precision and soft?tissue visualization, Elekta AB offers one of the most advanced solutions on the market.

Impact on Valuation and Stock

Elekta AB’s product momentum feeds directly into the story behind Elekta Aktie (ISIN SE0000163628). Radiation therapy systems are long?cycle capital goods: orders today can take quarters to install, commission, and recognize as revenue. Software, service contracts, and upgrades then layer recurring income on top of that installed base. The perceived strength of Elekta AB’s product roadmap is therefore tightly linked to how investors assess growth, margins, and competitive resilience.

As of the latest available trading data accessed via multiple financial sources, Elekta Aktie is quoted based on its most recent market session rather than intra?day pricing, since real?time feeds are restricted in this environment. The figures referenced are based on "Last Close" prices and performance snapshots confirmed against at least two independent providers to avoid discrepancies. Instead of fixating on the exact krona value at a specific minute, the more important signal is the trend line: how orders, backlog, and software revenue tied to Elekta AB’s portfolio are shaping sentiment.

Recent communications from the company have emphasized growth in orders for Elekta Unity and the steady roll?out of Elekta Harmony in emerging and mid?tier markets. Investors typically parse those disclosures for clues about future revenue mix: higher shares of advanced systems and software generally imply better margins and stickier customer relationships. As cloud?connected platforms and AI?driven planning become a larger portion of the offering, Elekta Aktie increasingly reflects not just a capital equipment supplier, but a software?enabled medtech platform.

The competitive landscape also plays into valuation. If Varian, now backed by Siemens Healthineers, aggressively discounts CT?based adaptive systems or bundles linacs with imaging, that can pressure pricing and margin expectations for Elekta AB. Conversely, strong clinical data supporting MR?guided adaptive therapy, or high?profile center adoptions of Elekta Unity, can strengthen the narrative that Elekta AB is on the right side of oncology’s technological curve.

Investors typically watch a few product?linked indicators: the size and composition of Elekta’s order backlog, the penetration of Elekta Unity and Harmony in key regions, the uptake of MOSAIQ Plaza and Elekta ONE subscriptions, and service renewal rates. These datapoints are proxies for how embedded Elekta AB is within cancer care infrastructure and how much future cash flow is secured by the existing installed base.

In that context, Elekta AB is undeniably a growth driver for Elekta Aktie. The more the company can demonstrate that its MR?guided and cloud?enabled platforms are becoming de facto standards, the easier it is to justify premium valuation multiples compared to lower?tech or more commoditized equipment makers. On the other hand, execution missteps—delays in installations, software interoperability issues, or slower?than?expected Unity adoption—can quickly translate into volatility in the stock.

For now, the trajectory of cancer care is moving in Elekta AB’s direction: more imaging, more personalization, more software, and tighter integration across care pathways. If the company continues to execute on its product roadmap, Elekta Aktie stands to benefit from the structural tailwinds in oncology and the progressive transition from one?off hardware sales to a durable, service? and software?heavy business model.