State is battling cancer on a subatomic level

By Jennifer Palmer

Published: April 20, 2008

Oklahoma is becoming a hub for cancer care.

Cancer patients here have a variety of treatment options, but the latest and greatest will be proton therapy, a type of cancer treatment that uses proton beams to precisely target tumors.

Patients generally tolerate proton therapy better than the traditional photon radiation therapy, said Dr. William C. Goad, an oncologist at Integris Baptist Medical Center. Proton beams cause less damage to tissue surrounding the cancerous tumor.

The treatment is especially appropriate for children, who are more sensitive to radiation therapy, as well as adult patients with brain, neck or prostate cancer.

Some studies have shown proton therapy produces better outcomes and cure rates, he said. Goad thinks proton treatment is the greatest advancement in cancer treatment in his 20-year career.

There are currently five centers offering proton therapy treatment in the U.S., and all have waiting lists, Goad said. Two centers are under construction in Oklahoma, and several other states plan to build centers, as well.

ProCure, a for-profit company, has partnered with Integris to build a 55,000-square-foot facility at the Kilpatrick Turnpike and MacArthur Boulevard in northwestern Oklahoma City.

The Oklahoma ProCure Treatment Center is set to open in summer 2009 at an initial cost of about $100 million.

Goad said the machine that produces the proton beams, called a cyclotron, will arrive soon. It takes a year to install and test the cyclotron, he said.

Installing the machine costs millions of dollars and requires expert staff, according to the American Cancer Society's Web site.

Goad said the medical community has debated the fairness of proton therapy, because of how expensive it is and how difficult it is to get to a center providing it.

Medical review boards consider each case of a patient considering the treatment.

A $120 million center also is being built at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. It is expected to open in 2010.

The OU Cancer Institute will have proton capabilities, as well as chemotherapy and multi-specialty clinical services.

Although there is not a waiting list for the Oklahoma ProCure Treatment Center, Goad said it could become a regional draw for cancer patients seeking proton treatment.

"We expect there will be a lot of demand locally, as well as outside of the state of Oklahoma,” Goad said.

As many as 1,500 cancer patients per year would be able to receive treatment at the center, according to an Integris news release.

In conjunction with the ProCure center, Integris plans to build a comprehensive cancer institute, to offer additional services to cancer patients and their families. Construction for that project is scheduled to start this summer, said Phil Lance, corporate vice president for oncology development at Integris.

The proton center and cancer institute will be "changing the model for cancer care,” Lance said. Currently, treatment is fragmented and patients go to hospitals, clinics and other settings.

Oklahoma City's proton center will be the first one built that is not university-based.

"It will truly be a world-class treatment center. It will put us in a very elite list of providers,” Lance said.

Proton therapy is now available at five major U.S. academic centers: Loma Linda University Medical Center in California, Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, the Midwest Proton Radiotherapy Institute in Bloomington, Ind., the University of Florida in Jacksonville, Fla., and the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

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