World's First Proton Therapy Training Center Created

Training for nurses, radiation therapists, and other personnel--from administrators to receptionists-- begins in March 2009.

The ProCure Training and Development Center (TDC) offers clinical, technical, interpersonal, and administrative training that pertains to all aspects of proton therapy treatment and patient care. "With our full-size treatment rooms and state-of-the art equipment, we simulate the total work environment for treating patients with proton therapy--with everything but the protons,” said John Cameron, Ph.D., founder, chairman and president of ProCure Treatment Centers, Inc. (Bloomington, IN, USA) and a physicist who is among the pioneers in proton therapy. "We believe we can promote the highest quality of patient care by providing ‘before-the-job training' rather than having to learn on the job.”

This first group of professionals will complete training in June 2009. They will be ready when ProCure's first proton therapy center opens in Oklahoma City (IA, USA) the summer of 2009. It will be the sixth proton center to open in the United States and will treat approximately 1,500 patients with cancer per year.

Proton therapy, an advanced form of radiation treatment for specific tumors, comprises ionizing radiation and has the same destructive mechanism in attacking cancer cells as photon radiation. The clinical benefits of proton therapy over conventional radiation therapy include: (1) Reduced occurrence of treatment related side effects due to the precision of the dose delivery and the resulting limited amount of radiation delivered to healthy tissues adjacent to the treatment volume. (2) Increased tumor control by being able to deposit a larger dose in the targeted volume. (3) Increased daily fraction dose that allows reduction of the number of fractions needed to treat a tumor. (4) Increased long-term patient survival rates for many types of tumors, due to improved local tumor control rate and reduction in the incidence of secondary tumors.

The ProCure TDC is a US$10-million, 20,000-square-foot facility that includes two treatment rooms and a fully operational four-dimensional (4D) computed tomography (CT) scanner. A dual inclined-beam room simulates the ability to bring the proton beam in from two angles; the gantry room simulates the full rotation of the proton beam around the patient. The TDC also has treatment planning areas, an immobilization device preparation area and lecture rooms.

"The training program is quite demanding,” said Tom Doyle, vice president of national training and education for ProCure. "Our class sizes are small--six to eight people--and participants are required to attend on-site classes where they learn how to operate all of the equipment, as well as participate in frequent web-based education programs. There's a challenging list of materials participants must read, self-training exercises, and of course, we do give exams,” Mr. Doyle said.

The curriculum includes general information about the science and application of proton therapy, as well as protocols for treating specific diseases, such as brain, head and neck, central nervous system, colorectal and prostate tumors. The special needs of pediatric patients are also addressed by the program.

Proton therapy, first used in a research setting in 1955, has become an established treatment option, and more than 55,000 patients worldwide have received the treatment. It is estimated that 250,000 people in the United States alone could benefit from proton therapy, yet the five American centers currently operating can only treat approximately 6,000 patients each year.

ProCure Treatment Centers was founded in 2005 to improve the lives of patients with cancer by increasing access to proton therapy. ProCure collaborates with leading radiation oncology practices and hospitals and provides management leadership and a comprehensive approach for the design, construction, financing, staffing, training, and day-to-day operations of world-class proton therapy centers

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ProCure Treatment Centers