Beaumont Opens Cancer-Fighting 'Proton Therapy Center'

ROYAL OAK, MI — Patients looking for more advanced treatment for cancer and cancerous abdominal/pelvic, liver, lung and thoracic tumors, among others, now have a local option. Beaumont Health on Thursday unveiled its new “Proton Therapy Center” in Royal Oak.

“Beaumont’s Proton Therapy Center is the first in Michigan to treat cancer patients with this powerful and precise form of treatment that deposits energy directly in the tumor, sparing nearby healthy organs and tissue from harm,” said Dr. Craig Stevens, chairman of Radiation Oncology at Beaumont Health. “It was many years in the making, but we never gave up in our efforts to bring this advanced cancer therapy to patients and families in Michigan."

In February 2015, construction began on the $40 million, two-story 25,200-square-feet facility on its Royal Oak campus. The first floor houses the Proton Therapy Center, including a cyclotron and gantry that produces and delivers proton beams to a single-room treatment area. The second floor will soon be the home of Beaumont’s Center for Children with Cancer and Blood Disorders.

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Belgium-based Beam Applications S.A., or IBA, manufactured, installed and will maintain the proton system for Beaumont. An Atlanta-based proton therapy development group, Proton International, is lending its operational expertise.

Beaumont’s center is one of just 25 operational proton therapy centers in the U.S. “This means that cancer patients from other states and countries will travel to Michigan for proton therapy, making Beaumont even more of a destination center for cancer care,” Stevens said.

Proton therapy is a high-tech alternative to X-ray radiation, according to Beaumont officials. It works by using a scanning beam of proton radiation with online image guidance to offer greater precision to destroy cancerous cells, sparing adjacent healthy tissue with fewer side effects.

Proton therapy uses positively charged atomic particles, traveling up to two-thirds the speed of light, to fight cancer. A cyclotron, or particle accelerator, creates protons from hydrogen molecules. The proton beam is sent to the treatment room through a transport system consisting of magnets, called the beam line, finally arriving in the gantry, a device that rotates around the patient. The beam is directed to the patient through a nozzle that targets the tumor.

While proton therapy is not effective against all cancers, Stevens said it is effective in treating many solid and localized tumors. “Proton therapy is an ideal treatment option for many patients, especially those with tumors close to vital organs,” he said in a Beaumont Health news release. “For children, those most vulnerable and susceptible to the damage of traditional radiation therapy, proton therapy offers less radiation exposure while reducing side effects.”

Photos courtesy of Beaumont Health. Bill Baker, pictured above, an 86-year-old Mid-Michigan man with brain cancer, was the first patient to receive treatment at the new Proton Therapy Center.