Proton beam tumor treatment comes to University of Maryland BioPark

WASHINGTON — The Maryland Proton Treatment Center has completed its first patient treatment using proton beam therapy, a precise form of care that targets tumors while sparing surrounding tissue.

The $200 million Maryland Proton Treatment Center is part of the University of Maryland BioPark in Baltimore. It was developed in conjunction with Palo Alto, Calif.-based Varian Medical Systems and San Diego-based Advanced Particle Therapy LLC.

It is the first in the eastern United States to offer image-guided intensity-modulated proton therapy with a ProBeam system.

Varian Medical Systems says with proton therapy, beams deposit their energy within the tumor site rather than passing all the way through the patient.

A proton beam precisely paints a tumor with radiation using a pencil point beam that deposits dose layer-by-layer as it scans back and forth across the tumor.

The proton center will eventually treat as many as 1,900 patients a year and be staffed by more than 170 proton therapy oncologists, medical physicists, radiation technologists and support staff.

You can see video of pencil beam scanning here.

Jeff Clabaugh

Jeff Clabaugh has spent 20 years covering the Washington region's economy and financial markets for WTOP as part of a partnership with the Washington Business Journal, and officially joined the WTOP newsroom staff in January 2016.

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