In a quiet building on a corner in Estero, clinicians are starting to deliver state-of-the-art cancer treatment, particularly to help patients with prostate and breast cancers. The treatment is known as proton therapy, a highly advanced form of radiation therapy that uses charged proton particles to destroy cancer cells.
Arie Dosoretz is CEO of Southwest Florida Proton.
“What protons do, is they allow us to treat cancer patients with a treatment that maximizes effectiveness and minimizes toxicity,” he said.
Proton therapy allows for greater precision than traditional radiation. Protons can travel directly to a targeted area and not beyond it. That means the radiation is less likely to harm nearby healthy tissue or organs.
Shannon MacDonald relocatedfrom Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital to serve as Senior Medical Director. She describes the cases that might benefit most from proton therapy.
“Children, because they have growing, developing tissues that are more sensitive to radiation; tumors that require a very high dose of radiation near a really important organ,” said Dr. MacDonald.
To receive the therapy, patients lie on a table that positions their tumor directly under the targeted proton beams. Clinicians can treat two to three patients per hour. The most common course of proton radiation is four to six weeks, although each case is different.
The machine that delivers the therapy weighs nearly 200 tons and is housed in a three-story reinforced concrete structure, with walls as thick as six to eight feet. The machine, known as the IBAProteusONE, was manufactured in Belgium. It took more than a year to install and calibrate.
“We’re really proud of what we’ve created here,” Dr. Dosoretzsaid.“This project has been many years in the making. Weactually started planning the proton center over five years ago, believe it or not.”
Southwest Florida Proton is the first proton center on the west coast of Florida and is one of 46 such centers nationwide.
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