Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA) and ProCure Treatment Centers, Inc. (ProCure) announced the opening of Seattle Cancer Care Alliance Proton Therapy, A ProCure Center today in Seattle, Washington. Located on UW Medicine's Northwest Hospital & Medical Center campus, the facility is the only proton therapy center in a seven-state region and the fourth in a nationwide network of proton therapy centers developed by ProCure. Proton therapy is a next-generation radiation treatment that precisely targets tumors, minimizing radiation to healthy tissue and improving the lives of patients with cancer. Doctors started treating patients at the new center this month.
To celebrate the center's opening, members of the local community are invited to gather on Saturday, March 9, for an open house from 11:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m., which will include a tour of the facility's cyclotron, the core piece of equipment used in proton therapy to create protons and transport them as a beam of energy and deliver targeted radiation treatment to cancer patients.
"SCCA's mission is to provide the best available treatment for cancer patients and we believe that this new center will do just that," said Norm Hubbard, executive vice president of SCCA. "We're thrilled to offer our patients access to this extraordinary form of treatment and began treating the first proton therapy patient in our region this week."
Proton therapy is an advanced and highly precise form of radiation treatment. It allows doctors to focus radiation directly into the tumor, minimizing damage to surrounding tissue and the risk of short- and long-term side effects from treatment. Currently available at only eleven centers in the United States, studies have shown proton therapy to be beneficial in treating a broad range of tumors, including those of the brain, central nervous system, gastrointestinal tract, head and neck, left breast, lung, and prostate, as well as sarcomas and certain pediatric cancers. This milestone exemplifies SCCA's mission to provide the best available treatment for cancer patients and is a testament to Seattle's leadership in cancer care.