Bloomington’s ProCure Training and Development Center – First Dedicated Proton Therapy Training Facility in the World

Bloomington, Ind. (November 12, 2007) – Bloomington is evolving into a focal point for the development of proton therapy, a decades-old alternative to conventional radiation therapy that is just now emerging at prestigious university medical centers and progressive community hospitals across the country.  Medical physicists from around the country will be arriving in Bloomington this week to attend a lecture series and training course in proton therapy physics, hosted by the ProCure Training and Development Center (TDC), which will be the first facility in the world dedicated to proton therapy training when it officially opens in February.

Bloomington also is home to the Midwest Proton Radiotherapy Institute (MPRI), which is affiliated with the Indiana University and Clarian Health Partners, Indianapolis, and one of only five proton treatment centers currently operating in the United States.
The TDC’s inaugural lecture series, “Physics Techniques in Proton Radiotherapy”  presented by Harvard’s Bernie Gottschalk, Ph.D, will train physicists in proton radiotherapy physics and focus on the basic and foundational physics techniques employed by proton therapy systems to treat patients.

Dr. Gottschalk is a pioneer in proton therapy physics and an honorary member of the Proton Therapy Cooperative Group (PTCOG). He started nuclear physics research at the Harvard Cyclotron Lab (HCL) in 1955, obtained his Ph.D. in 1962, and remained as a postdoctoral fellow until 1965. After 16 years in experimental high energy particle research, he returned to HCL (then a medical facility) in 1981 and stayed there to work on the physics of proton radiotherapy, electronics and instrumentation, until HCL closed in 2002.

The Bloomington training facility, built by Procure Treatment Centers, Inc. of Bloomington, will offer clinical, technical and administrative training that simulates all aspects of proton therapy treatment.  The TDC is equipped with two treatment rooms, fully equipped with a “state of the art” Image Guided Radiotherapy (IGRT) infrastructure to position a patient for treatment, a state of the art CT scanner and treatment planning and oncology information systems – the TDC is “a proton therapy facility without the protons.” In addition to the equipment, the facility also offers several lecture rooms for courses to train staff on all aspects of proton radiation therapy.

ABOUT PROCURE TREATMENT CENTERS, INC.
ProCure Treatment Centers, Inc. was founded in 2005 by Dr. John Cameron, a particle therapy physics pioneer who also 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.¹

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.  In Philadelphia, the University of Pennsylvania Health System Proton Therapy Treatment Center is scheduled to open in 2008.  The ProCure Oklahoma City center is expected to be operational in 2009.

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1. 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.

Editor’s Note: Media materials are available at www.ProCureNews.com.