• 7/1/2006
  • Jacksonville, FL
  • Jack Stripling
  • HeraldTribune.com

In the fight against one of the world’s most vicious killers, University of Florida physicians say they’ve found a better bullet.

Gathered at the UF Proton Therapy Institute here Tuesday, the new facility’s brain trust marveled at state-of-the-art equipment they say will help save the lives of cancer patients.

The institute to be called Florida Proton will begin treating patients in late July or early August. Using a procedure called proton therapy, physicians will treat patients with highly targeted killing doses of radiation that strike at cancerous cells with unique precision.

“You are standing in the most sophisticated radiation oncology center on the planet,” Dr. Sameer Keole, a UF assistant professor of radiation oncology, told reporters at a media event Tuesday.

The $125 million project, which was first proposed in 1998, will make UF’s 98,000-square-foot facility one of just five such institutes in the nation. Instead of using traditional radiation delivery methods, like X-rays, the center will employ proton beams that UF experts say are more effective.

The high-tech equipment in the center resembles something from a science fiction movie. But the basic principle that guides proton therapy is simple: Zero in on the bad cells with a killing dose of radiation, and spare the healthy cells that surround the cancer.

By using protons, which are tiny subatomic particles, physicians can send a high dose of radiation directly to the site of the tumor. Once the proton reaches the tumor site, it releases all of its energy upon impact into the tumor, and thereby reduces damage to other healthy cells in the body.

The key difference between this therapy and X-rays, for instance, is the amount of radiation that affects healthy cells, said Dr. Nancy Mendenhall, the institute’s medical director. X-rays are waves of energy that deliver radiation to the cancer site, which has made them an effective method of treatment for decades. The problem, however, is that once X-rays reach the cancer site, they then proceed to pass right on through the rest of the patient’s body, Mendenhall said. That “exit dose” sends toxins through the body, which can cause adverse side effects that range from stunted growth in children to blindness and brain damage, she said.

“We don’t just damage cancer cells,” Mendenhall said. “We damage normal cells.”

Protons, on the other hand, can be slowed down and directed to literally “stop” once they reach the tumor, Mendenhall said.

The side effects of radiation treatment, which will be lessened by proton therapy, can take a particularly brutal toll on children, Mendenhall noted. Because their bodies are still developing, children have a higher proportion of stem cells, which grow and divide as their bodies mature. Inadvertently destroying those cells with radiation can cause brain damage, which has been linked to a lowering of IQ among young patients, she said.

“You’re killing a cell that was supposed to make a million cells,” she said.

About 10 percent to 20 percent of the center’s patients will be children once it’s fully operational, Mendenhall noted. The center is sure to attract patients from across the region, but Mendenhall says the staff will be judicious in their selection of patients.

The highest-priority patients will be those who have a cancer that is particularly difficult to target through traditional therapies, Mendenhall said. Cancers of the lung, esophagus and pancreas, for instance, would be priority cases for the institute, she said. Early stage breast cancer, however, is well treated with traditional methods and wouldn’t be a priority case, Mendenhall said.

When the institute opens its doors to the first patients, only about eight will be treated each day. Within three years, however, the facility aims to reach full capacity when some 200 patients could be treated daily.

Fully staffed, the institute will employ about 150 people, 34 of which will be faculty. The institute is affiliated with both UF’s College of Medicine and the UF Shands Cancer Center.

Fledgling technology Proton beam therapy has been around for some 40 years, but in many ways it is still a fledgling technology. When UF officials first discussed building a center, there was little in the way of peer-reviewed literature on the subject.

Dr. Craig Tisher, dean of UF’s College of Medicine, said the college is indeed taking a risk by investing in the technology but said he feels confident it will prove the right move.