Oklahoma’s new proton therapy center

The 18,300 m ² facility is a joint project between ProCure Treatment Centers, Inc , a four-year-old start-up company; Radiation Medicine Associates, one of the state’s leading radiation oncology practices; and INTEGRIS Health , the state’s largest Oklahoma-owned, not-for-profit healthcare corporation, which will offer ancillary care to patients that need it.ProCure is currently building a US network of proton therapy centers, the second of which will be in Chicago , followed by locations in New Jersey, Detroit and South Florida . Proton therapy is attractive to physicians because for some types of cancers, the higher doses of radiation can be used to control and manage cancer while significantly reducing damage to healthy tissue and vital organs that occur with more traditional radiation treatment.

The Oklahoma center was built in 27 months and makes use of a number of new innovations, such as the design of the treatment room, and the uses of robotic patient positioning systems to bring the cost of treatment down by a significant margin. The protons are created through use of a 220-ton cyclotron that is 5.4-meters in diameter and 2.4 meters high (see above. Photo credit: ProCure Treatment Centers)."Right now, there are only about 6,000 treatment slots available in the United States for a quarter of a million cancer patients who are candidates for proton therapy,” said Procure’s CEO Hadley Ford.Ford acknowledged that energy executive and philanthropist Aubrey K. McClendon, co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy Corporation , personally provided the initial $70 million funding for ProCure. “ProCure’s vision to make proton therapy more accessible to cancer patients caught my attention three years ago,” says McClendon. “The company has done an exceptional job developing and constructing this facility since that time.”

“Oklahoma City’s proton center is the realization of what was not much more than a dream four years ago,” said Procure’s founder, physicist John Cameron (left) at the opening ceremony.Cameron survived a bout of prostate cancer through proton therapy four years ago. “Many are talking about building proton centers; we’re actually doing it,” he says. “These are very exciting times for us and for patients with cancer.""The nature of the proton therapy—a daily course of treatment that can last for up to eight weeks—argues for more centers in many more communities,” said W.C. Goad, medical director of the new center. “In every center in the country, half or more of the patients treated come from out of state.” Related Physics Today articles Accelerators shrink to meet growing demand for proton therapy March 2009 Weighing Proton Therapy’s Clinical Readiness and Costs June 2003