University Hospitals Fights Cancer With the Power of Protons

MDNews Cleveland/Akron/Canton - September/October 2016

IN THE PAST 50 years, improvements in photon (X-ray) based radiotherapy technology have made tumor treatments more accurate and enabled the delivery of higher and more effective radiation doses. Equally if not more important have been the ongoing efforts to decrease radiation exposure to healthy organs and tissues.

Proton therapy, the next generation of radiotherapy, targets tumors with the maximum radiation dose while reducing radiation exposure to surrounding healthy tissue. This advanced therapy, which is proving very beneficial in the treatment of many cancers — especially in children and young adults, is currently available only at a small number of cancer centers across the country. University Hospitals (UH) in Cleveland, with the opening of its new Proton Therapy Center in July 2016 at UH Seidman Cancer Center, is now a member of this elite group.

The Proton Therapy Center at UH is Ohio’s first and only proton therapy center and one of the world’s first “compact” centers featuring the Mevion S250 system. This unique single-room system, requiring only a 40-foot by 40-foot by 40-foot space, is significantly smaller than traditional proton therapy systems, which are the size of a football field. Yet it is equal in power. Housed in an 11,000-square-foot facility, UH’s Proton Therapy Center is located on the same campus as UH Seidman Cancer Center and just 100 feet from the Angie Fowler Adolescent & Young Adult Cancer Institute at UH Rainbow Babies’ & Children’s Hospital.

“Our proton facility is centrally placed among the 17 Seidman Cancer Center sites across northern Ohio. In addition, within the large campus of UH Cleveland Medical Center at University Circle, the proton facility is convenient to both adult and pediatric patients and to cancer physicians from all disciplines,” says Nathan Levitan, MD, President, UH Seidman Cancer Center. “This provides our cancer patients with easy access to multidisciplinary care.” MDNews Proton Therapy

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