Boca Raton, Fla. – May 6, 2008
(Press Release) – A group of
leading community radiation oncologists, Boca Raton Proton Therapy,
LLC (BRPT) and ProCure Treatment Centers announced today that they
will develop a proton treatment center in South Florida, and expect
to begin treating patients within 26 months of breaking ground.
Proton therapy is an effective alternative to conventional X-ray
radiation treatments, but without many of the short- and long-term
side effects patients often experience. Proton therapy can be
precisely targeted to a tumor, allowing patients to receive higher,
more effective doses, and greatly reducing damage to healthy tissue
near the tumor.
The 58,000-square-foot center will be located in Broward or Palm
Beach County with site selection near completion. The facility will
be able to treat as many as 1,500 patients a year. The
American Cancer Society estimates there were approximately 106,500
new cases of cancer in Florida in 2007. Radiation oncologists
estimate about 60 percent of those patients (63,900) will receive
radiation therapy at some point during treatment and, using
conservative estimates, about 30 percent (19,170) of those patients
could benefit from proton therapy. The South Florida Center
will be the second proton therapy center in the State of Florida and
one of a handful that will be operating in the United States by the
time it is completed.
“Proton therapy is a highly precise and effective form of
radiation therapy that can significantly benefit patients with
cancer,” said Hadley Ford, Chief Executive Officer of ProCure, which
has a proton center under construction in Oklahoma and projects
announced in two other states. “We are excited about the opportunity
to collaborate with some of the premier radiation oncologists in
South Florida to bring this important cancer treatment to the
region.”
“ProCure’s ability to develop high quality proton therapy
centers, their focus on clinical excellence and research, and their
depth of experience in proton therapy were the determining factors
in our decision to work with them,’’ said Carlos Vargas, M.D., one
of the lead physicians in BRPT. “We have been evaluating how to
bring this advanced technology to South Florida and our patients.
We believe we have found the right partner, who understands the
complexities of developing proton centers and has already created
solutions addressing those issues.”
Editor’s Note: Press materials are available at
www.SouthFloridaProtonTherapy.com
About Proton Therapy
Nearly 50,000 cancer patients worldwide have taken advantage of
the technology to effectively treat many types of solid tumors.
Proton therapy can be precisely targeted to a tumor, allowing
patients to receive higher, more effective doses, and greatly
reducing damage to healthy tissue near the tumor. Proton
therapy can be particularly effective in treating children, who are
more sensitive than adults to the effects of radiation. Studies have
shown proton therapy to be effective in treating prostate,
colorectal, head and neck and brain tumors as well as cancers that
cannot be removed completely by surgery. Studies also are
showing promising results in the treatment of some breast and lung
tumors.
Research shows proton therapy causes fewer short- and long-term
side effects than traditional radiation therapy, diminishes the
chances of secondary tumors and improves quality of life for
patients.1,2,3
In 1961, the Harvard Cyclotron Laboratory at Harvard University
in Boston began treating patients with proton therapy. Advances in
imaging technology, such as CT, MRI and PET scans, helped
researchers to better diagnose and visualize tumors and made proton
therapy a more practical treatment option. The first
hospital-based proton treatment center in the United States was
built in 1990 at Loma Linda University Medical Center in Loma Linda,
Calif.
In the United States, proton therapy is currently available at:
Midwest Proton Radiotherapy Institute at Indiana University,
Bloomington, Ind.; Frances H. Burr Proton Therapy Center at
Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston (affiliated with Harvard
Medical School); The Proton Therapy Center at M.D. Anderson Cancer
Center at University of Texas, Houston; Loma Linda University
Medical Center, in Loma Linda, Calif.; University of Florida Proton
Therapy Institute, Jacksonville, Fla. Two centers are
scheduled to open in 2009, the University of Pennsylvania Roberts
Proton Therapy Center in Philadelphia and the Oklahoma ProCure
Treatment Center in Oklahoma City; and another center is under
construction at Hampton University, Hampton, Va.
About BRPT
BRPT consists of leading radiation oncologists who have been
practicing for an average of 19 years and is based in Boca Raton,
Fla. The physicians who have joined BRPT are early adopters of
innovative technologies used in the treatment of cancer. They
have experience in treating cancer in a variety of sites, including
head and neck, lung, breast, brain, bladder and prostate, and in
pediatric patients.
About ProCure Treatment Centers, Inc.
Indiana-based ProCure Treatment Centers, Inc. was founded in 2005
by Dr. John Cameron, who played a pivotal role in the creation of
one of the nation’s first proton therapy treatment facilities, the
Midwest Proton Radiotherapy Institute in Bloomington, Ind.
ProCure provides management support and a proven model for the
complete design, construction, operation and maintenance of proton
therapy treatment centers in an effort to make proton therapy
accessible to everyone who would benefit from the treatment.
ProCure’s Training and Development Center (TDC), the first proton
therapy training center in the world, opened in March 2008 in
Bloomington. The TDC provides world class training, technical
development and program management skills for radiation oncologists,
medical physicists, dosimetrists, radiation therapists and other
staff involved in proton therapy treatment. ProCure will open
its first proton therapy treatment center in Oklahoma City in 2009
and is planning to construct proton therapy centers in Illinois and
Michigan. For more information about ProCure Treatment Centers,
Inc., please visit
www.procurecenters.com.
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Miralbell et al. Potential reduction of the incidence of
radiation-induced second cancers by using proton beam in the
treatment of pediatric tumors. Int J. Radiat. Oncol. Biol.
Phys. 2002;54(3) 824-829.
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S. Ternier, Ph.D. Proton Therapy White Paper. On file.
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MacDonald S., DeLaney T. and Loeffler J. Proton Beam
Radiation Therapy. Radiation Oncology 2006, 24:199-208.
