Mayo Clinic Proton Beam Therapy Facilities is Built to Fight Cancer Effectively with Less Side Effects

Mayo Clinic Hospital in Phoenix has built a cancer-fighting apparatus as long as a football field that moves at two–thirds the speed of light. The $180 million–plus proton will join a growing number of centers nationwide. There are 15 proton centers across the country, and 10 more are planned or under construction, according to the National Association for Proton Therapy.

Proton beam therapy expands Mayo Clinic's cancer care capabilities. In properly selected patients — especially children and young adults and those with cancers located close to critical organs and body structures — proton beam therapy is an advance over traditional radiotherapy.

Recent studies have shown that proton therapy is an effective treatment for certain types of pediatric cancers, such as brain cancer and sarcoma, and hard–to–extract tumors on the eye and spine.

Mayo Clinic's Proton Beam Therapy Program differs from most other programs in the United States — it exclusively features intensity–modulated proton beam therapy with pencil beam scanning. The latest form of proton beam therapy, uses spot scanning to deposit streams of protons back and forth through a tumor, closely targeting the tumor and sparing healthy tissue.

Every patient's tumor is unique.

Mayo Clinic doctors and other specialists develop an individualized plan for each patient. Proton beam therapy will be the best option for certain patients and tumor types while others may benefit from a different approach — another type of radiation therapy or no radiation at all. Mayo Clinic patients have a full range of cancer treatment options.

MAYO CLINIC PROTON BEAM SNAPSHOT

• First in the five-state (Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico) Southwest region

• The therapy provides more precise radiological cancer treatment and hope for thousands of patients.

• All eight treatment rooms (four in Arizona and four in Rochester, Minnesota) in Mayo Clinic’s facilities will use pencil beam scanning.

• Children, young adults and healthy older patients with tumors next to sensitive critical organs will receive the highest priority.

• Mayo Clinic is investing more than $370 million from its capital budget and donor support.

• The cutting-edge cancer treatment program will be housed in a 100,000-square-foot building on the Mayo campus in Phoenix, which will boost the economy with construction jobs and permanent medical jobs.

• Cancer is the largest clinical practice at Mayo Clinic. Every year, nearly 20,000 new cancer patients come to Mayo's three campuses – in Arizona, Florida and Rochester – where they receive the most comprehensive and advanced cancer care available anywhere.

• Mayo Clinic is the only three-site, National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer care center in the nation.

Unlike other proton centers that have been built with financing, Mayo Clinic's centers in Phoenix was built with philanthropic support.