April 18, 2016 — Delray Medical Center, Delray Beach, Fla., has reached agreement with Proton International (PI) to build a one-room proton therapy treatment center serving the South Florida corridor.
Proton therapy, a form of radiation therapy, is a highly precise and effective treatment for many cancer tumors but without many of the side effects that often accompany treatment.
Delray will be among a select group of hospitals in the country to offer proton therapy using the most advanced technology available, a fully featured compact system with dynamic peak pencil beam scanning, developed by Varian Medical Systems.
“We are looking forward to offering this innovative treatment option at Delray Medical Center,” said Mark Bryan, CEO. “It is always our goal to incorporate new technologies and techniques that will make treatment safer and less invasive for our patients.”
“We are very pleased to team with Delray to assure broader access to this important cancer therapy. It will allow people to be treated in their community, close to family and friends,” said Chris Chandler, CEO of Proton International, which currently has proton centers under construction at Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, Mich., and the University Medical Center in Groningen, The Netherlands. “We selected Varian to be the proton system provider because Varian’s ProBeam system has unique capabilities making it the most complete single room proton system on the market.”
Proton therapy is particularly effective in treating solid cancer tumors, including tumors of the brain, spine, head and neck, lung, prostate, colon and some breast tumors. It is widely used to treat children with cancer because of its precision and lack of long-term side effects, as children are particularly sensitive to the effects of radiation therapy.
Pencil beam scanning gives physicians advanced options for delivering proton therapy precisely in order to minimize exposure to healthy tissue while delivering treatments. The scanning beam technology enables intensity-modulated proton therapy (IMPT) by adjusting dose levels on a spot-by-spot basis throughout the treatment area.
PI’s turnkey development significantly lowers project risk and provides access to long-term funding, making it easier and more affordable for hospitals, oncologists and other medical professionals to offer proton cancer therapy to patients in one- or two-room centers.
For more information: www.protonintl.com
August 09, 2024 
