Proton Beam Therapy
BALTIMORE—Constructed in Germany, shipped to the port of Baltimore, and driven through downtown during the night, the 90-ton cyclotron arrived at the University of Maryland's Proton Treatment Center.
The Cancer Letter recently published information regarding proton therapy facilities in the U.S., highlighting a contention that 85 percent of patients treated with protons have prostate cancer, the logical implication of which would be that this important resource is utilized minimally for other cancers. In this response, we wish to correct this erroneous impression and also wish to highlight the direction that this technology is moving in.
The University of Colorado and Colorado State University are vying to become the first institution to build a carbon-ion radiotherapy research and treatment facility in the U.S. The treatment modality is available in Europe and Japan.
