ProCure Treatment Centers and Oklahoma State University Collaborate to Fight Cancer
New Medical Physics Program at OSU Will Produce the Next Generation of Proton Treatment Experts
OKLAHOMA CITY – Oct. 29, 2008 – ProCure Treatment Centers, Inc. and Oklahoma State University (OSU) announced details of a collaboration that will help shape the future of cancer treatment in the state of Oklahoma and across the United States.
Funded by ProCure, the initiative will allow OSU students to gain rare and valuable hands-on training at the ProCure Proton Therapy Center in Oklahoma City, presently under construction. Access to proton therapy technology, currently available at only five centers throughout the United States, will give OSU an opportunity to address the critical nationwide shortage of medical physicists.
“Our goal is not only to bring proton therapy to the many that need it but also to play a role in the advancement of the field by educating and training the future treatment providers,” said Niek Schreuder, ProCure’s senior vice president of medical physics and technology. “We are fortunate to have a respected university such as OSU to partner with in the community of our first proton therapy center.”
ProCure will provide annual scholarships to support OSU in its development of a fully accredited medical physics program for undergraduates and graduate students, internships at the ProCure Proton Therapy Center in Oklahoma City and use of the center’s equipment for research.
“At Oklahoma State University we work hard to challenge our students, provide them with unique programs and arm them with the best tools for success,” said Burns Hargis, president of OSU. “This partnership with ProCure fulfills all three goals. We’re proud of the fact that in the future, lives of cancer patients could possibly be saved by OSU students. We are honored to partner with ProCure and sincerely appreciate its leadership in this important area.”
The 55,000-square-foot center, located in Oklahoma City at the northwest corner of Memorial and MacArthur, is set to open in 2009. The facility will be ProCure’s first, and will treat about 1,500 patients a year. Ancillary cancer-care services will be provided by the INTEGRIS Cancer Institute of Oklahoma, a comprehensive cancer center connected to the ProCure Proton Therapy Center.
There are currently five proton therapy centers operating in the United States, providing a combined total of about 6,000 treatment slots per year. Another two centers are scheduled to open in 2009, including the ProCure Proton Therapy Center in Oklahoma City. ProCure has three other centers under development in Michigan, Florida and Illinois. For more information on ProCure Treatment Centers visit www.ProCure.com. ProCure press materials are available at www.ProCureNews.com.
ABOUT PROCURE TREATMENT CENTERS, INC.
ProCure Treatment Centers, Inc., based in Bloomington, Ind., was founded in 2005. ProCure partners with leading radiation oncology practices and hospitals and provides management leadership and a comprehensive approach for the design, construction, financing, staffing, training and day-to-day operations of world-class proton therapy centers. ProCure’s solution reduces the time, cost and effort necessary to create a facility. This allows physicians to continue focusing on patient care and increased access to patients who can benefit from this advanced cancer treatment. ProCure’s Training and Development Center is the first facility in the world dedicated to proton therapy. For more information, visit www.ProCure.com.
ABOUT OKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY
Oklahoma State University is a modern land-grant system that cuts across disciplines to better prepare students for a new world. Oklahoma’s only university with a statewide presence, OSU improves the lives of people in Oklahoma, the nation, and the world through integrated, high-quality teaching, research and outreach. OSU has more than 32,000 students across its five-campus system and more than 19,000 on its Stillwater campus; with students from all 50 states and about 110 nations. Established in 1890, OSU has graduated more than 200,000 students who have made a lasting impact on Oklahoma and the world. CREATE - INNOVATE - EDUCATE - GO STATE!
ABOUT PROTON THERAPY
Nearly 50,000 cancer patients worldwide have taken advantage of the technology to effectively treat most common types of solid tumor cancers. 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 brain, breast, colorectal, head and neck, lung and prostate cancer 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.
Proton therapy is an effective alternative to conventional X-ray radiation treatments, but without many of the side effects patients often experience. 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. 1,2,3
In 1961, the Harvard Cyclotron Laboratory at Harvard University in Boston began treating patients with proton therapy but its use was stalled by the inability of diagnostic imaging equipment to pinpoint tumor locations, which is necessary for proton treatment to be effective. 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 ProCure Proton Therapy Center in Oklahoma City.
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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.
- 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.
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