A key milestone
ProCure gets cyclotron to battle cancer
ProCure gets cyclotron to battle cancer
By Jim Stafford
Comments 
0
Published: May 13, 2008
A journey of 6,200 miles that began two months ago in Antwerp, Belgium, ended at the ProCure Treatment Center in northwest Oklahoma City on Monday when a 120-ton piece of equipment was lowered into place.
Multimedia
More Info
Proton therapy
After the center opens, 1,300 cancer patients are expected to be treated there annually with radioactive protons delivered in precise doses to kill tumors.
"We're very excited about this arrival,” said Ed Bertels, executive director of ProCure Oklahoma. "It marks a milestone in the completion of the first community-based proton center. There are only five centers in the United States that provide proton therapy, and Oklahoma will be the sixth.”
Medical specialists that will work at the ProCure site will undergo training on working with protons at a training facility the company built in Bloomington, Ind., Bertels said.
"Most of our staff will probably come on board in the spring,” Bertels said. "What ProCure did early on was to develop that training center. That's up and running; they have some very similar treatment-type rooms up there that simulates the exact type of equipment.”
Dr. Gary Larson, a radiation oncologist and partner in Radiation Medicine Associations, an Oklahoma City-based medical partner in the ProCure venture, said the arrival of the cyclotron represents a milestone for physicians who treat cancer patients.
"As residents of radiation oncology, we all learned about proton beam radiation therapy, but I never thought I would have the opportunity to use it as a tool in treating patients with cancer during my lifetime,” Larson said. "It's real exciting. It's still a little hard to believe that we will actually be able to use protons.”
Larson said about 250,000 cancer patients nationwide would benefit from proton therapy, he said.
"Only about 6,000 actually receive treatment because of limited resources,” Larson said.
Plant to open in 2009
The ProCure Treatment Center will be housed in a 55,000-square-foot building for which construction began in April 2007. Houston-based Linbeck Construction Corp. is general contractor on the project, with most of the subcontractors drawn from local companies, said Craig Fredrickson, Linbeck's project manager.
Up to 250 people at any one time have worked on the construction project, Fredrickson said.
When the plant becomes operational in 2009, it will employ about 75 highly skilled dosemetrists, medical physicists and other specialists.
The cyclotron was built and will be assembled and maintained by Belgium-based IBA Technology Group. When fully assembled, it will weigh 220 tons. IBA personnel were on hand for the delivery and will remain on site as the equipment is assembled and calibrated, said Brendan Lyden, IBA's project manager.
Next to the ProCure Center will be a comprehensive cancer center developed by the Integris Cancer Institute of Oklahoma. Groundbreaking for the Integris center is expected to be in the next 60 days, said Phil Lance, vice president of oncology development for Integris Health.
Related Topics:
Science and Technology, Health and Fitness, Medicine, Sciences, Mental Health, Cancer, Addiction and Recovery, Physics, Atomic and Molecular Physics
Prev
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
Thank you for joining our conversations on newsok. We encourage your discussions but ask that you stay within the bounds of our terms and conditions. Please help us by reporting comments that violate these guidelines. To review our rules of engagement, go to Commenting and posting policy.
Log in below or sign up (it's free).