December 9, 2009 - Proton therapy is gaining wider adoption in the United States, having treated more than 3,200 of the 18,000 Oklahomans diagnosed with cancer in 2009.
The second treatment room recently opened in Oklahoma City, doubling the number of patients and expanding the types of tumors the ProCure Proton Therapy Center can treat with proton therapy, an alternative to X-ray radiation that spares healthy tissue and reportedly results in fewer short- and long-term treatment side effects.
“The gantry, which can rotate the proton beam 360 degrees around the patient, expands our ability to treat more clinically challenging tumors,” said W.C. Goad, M.D., medical director of the Center and a founder of Radiation Medicine Associates (RMA), the radiation oncology practice that provides clinical care to the Center.
The Center opened in July and can now treat patients diagnosed with a broader range of tumor types, including more anatomically complex tumors such as base of skull, tumors along the spinal cord and many pediatric cancers. Other tumor types being treated at the center include head and neck, brain, central nervous system, and prostate, among others. The final two treatment rooms will open by spring 2010 and the Center will be operating at full capacity by next summer, treating up to 1,500 patients a year.
The ProCure Proton Therapy Center in Oklahoma City is the sixth center in the country to provide proton therapy and the first in ProCure's network of centers to provide this advanced radiation therapy to patients with cancer. Currently, construction is under way on a ProCure facility in suburban Chicago and ProCure has centers in development in suburban Detroit, South Florida, Seattle and Somerset, New Jersey.
For more information: www.procure.com
May 06, 2024 
