Partnership to Build First Proton Therapy Center in Illinois
Physicians group, hospital join proton therapy experts to create leading-edge cancer treatment center in Chicago suburb
[Editor's Note: Some information has been updated since original release date.]
WINFIELD, Ill., July 10, 2007 – Cancer patients in Illinois will soon have access to proton therapy, a highly advanced form of radiation treatment, at a new center to be located in DuPage County. A Chicago-area physicians group, Radiation Oncology Consultants Limited (ROCL), Central DuPage Hospital, Winfield, and ProCure Treatment Centers, Inc., Bloomington, Ind., announced today that they will collaborate to make this treatment available to patients in need.
The new four-room center will be the first to open in Illinois, and only the eighth in the country. The hospital filed a letter of intent late yesterday with the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board, and construction crews will be able to break ground for the center within a month of the regulatory board granting its approval of the project. If approval is received by this fall, the center would open to treat patients in January 2010.
Compared to conventional X-ray (photon) radiation therapy, proton therapy can be more precisely targeted to the tumor, allowing patients to receive higher, more effective doses, and greatly reducing damage to healthy tissue near the tumor. 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
Studies have shown proton therapy to be effective in treating prostate, breast, lung, colorectal, head and neck and brain tumors, among others. Proton therapy can be particularly effective in treating children, who are more sensitive than adults to the effects of radiation. Although 250,000 patients nationwide could benefit from this advanced therapy, at most only 6,000 treatment slots are potentially available each year at the five centers currently operating in the United States.
ProCure Treatment Centers will manage the construction, operation and maintenance plan for the $140 million, 58,000-square-foot facility that will have the capacity to accommodate up to 1,500 patients per year. [Updated 1/08] The company anticipates the development of the treatment center will create approximately 100 full-time jobs and 400 temporary positions for construction and start-up operations. Illinois-based contractors will be used to construct the facility.
ROCL physicians chose to partner with ProCure following an exhaustive three-year search to identify and evaluate the best way to provide their patients access to proton therapy. ROCL and ProCure, in turn, selected Central DuPage Hospital, a nationally recognized institution.
“We’re placing this important and much needed cancer treatment option on a fast track,” said William F. Hartsell, M.D., a board certified radiation oncologist and president of ROCL. “Pending regulatory approvals, we are prepared to break ground so we can begin treating patients in about two and a half years.”
ProCure said all financing for the project is in place and it will be funded entirely through private sources.
“This project is viable and fully funded. We have FDA-approved equipment, a proton therapy partner with experience building centers and treating patients, and a nationally recognized hospital partner to offer patients convenient, one-stop access to a full-range of additional health care and support services,” said Hartsell.
ProCure founder John Cameron, Ph.D., a proton therapy pioneer who played a pivotal role in the creation of the Midwest Proton Therapy Institute at the University of Indiana in Bloomington, will oversee the Illinois project. He will work with a team of experts, including physicians who have ongoing experience treating patients with proton therapy.
“We’ve been treating patients with proton therapy for more than 40 years in the United States and have experienced some remarkable, exciting results,” said Dr. Cameron. “Being able to help physicians and hospitals bring this therapy to their patients is enormously rewarding.”
Proton therapy currently is available at MPRI and only four other major U.S. academic centers in California, Florida, Massachusetts and Texas.
ProCure is developing a network of proton therapy cancer treatment centers across the United States. Members of ProCure’s team have been involved in the development of five of the seven proton treatment centers currently in operation or under construction. Most recently, ProCure partnered with the two leading local radiation oncology practices and a health care system in Oklahoma City to build that state’s first proton therapy center. It is scheduled to open in 2009.
ABOUT RADIATION ONCOLOGY CONSULTANTS LIMITED
Radiation Oncology Consultants Limited (ROCL), with headquarters in Park Ridge, Ill., is the largest private practice radiation oncology practice in Illinois.
The practice, composed of 12 board certified radiation oncology physicians who provide cancer care to patients at multiple locations, has been an early adopter of leading technologies used in the treatment of cancer. These technologies include: 3-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (3DCRT), intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), Gamma Knife radiosurgery and, soon, proton therapy. For more information, visit www.chicagocancer.com.
ABOUT CENTRAL DUPAGE HOSPITAL
Central DuPage Hospital, a 361-bed facility located in Winfield, Ill., a suburb west of Chicago, is a nationally recognized Solucient “Top 100 Hospital.” It is a leading center for surgical innovations and was one of the first institutions in the nation to offer minimally invasive heart surgery, robotic-assisted surgery, minimally invasive spine surgery with bio-engineered bone protein, and was the first Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in DuPage County.
The hospital is part of an interdependent network of health care organizations and services, including convenient care centers, occupational health services and a full range of options for senior living, home health and hospice care. For more information, visit www.cdh.org.
ABOUT PROCURE TREATMENT CENTERS, INC.
ProCure Treatment Centers, Inc., based in Bloomington, Ind., was founded in 2005 by Dr. Cameron, a particle therapy physics pioneer who was pivotal in the development of the Midwest Proton Radiotherapy Institute. ProCure provides management support and a model for the complete design, construction, operation and maintenance of world-class proton therapy centers. Through partnerships with leading radiation oncologists and hospitals, ProCure’s business model reduces the time, effort and cost involved in creating a facility, which allows physicians more time to focus on patient care. ProCure plans to increase the number of centers across the country to make proton therapy affordable and accessible to patients who would benefit from the treatment. For more information, visit www.ProCure.com.
ABOUT PROTON THERAPY
Nearly 50,000 cancer sufferers worldwide have taken advantage of the technology to effectively treat most common types of solid tumor cancers, including head and neck, prostate, breast, lung, colorectal and brain tumors. Proton therapy’s ability to precisely target tumors makes it ideal for treating tumors near vital organs, especially in children. It has been shown to reduce normal tissue damage, side effects and to lessen the probability of secondary tumors later in life.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 only available in five major academic centers: 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 MD 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. In Philadelphia, the University of Pennsylvania Roberts Proton Therapy Center is scheduled to open in 2009. The ProCure Proton Therapy Center in Oklahoma Cityis expected to be operational in 2009.
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- S. Ternier, Ph.D. Proton Therapy White Paper. On file.
- MacDonald S., DeLaney T. and Loeffler J. Proton Beam Radiation Therapy. Radiation Oncology 2006, 24:199-208.
- 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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