New proton therapy equipment arrives in Jacksonville; installation at UF Health Proton Therapy Institute slated for Nov. 12-15

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (Nov. 2, 2018) — The cross-Atlantic leg of the journey carrying the new cyclotron and gantry to the University of Florida Health Proton Therapy Institute was completed recently as the cargo was unloaded at JAXPORT.

Together, the cyclotron and the gantry are the largest components of the new Proteus^®ONE compact single-room proton therapy system. They will be housed in the 10,000-square-foot expansion, adjacent and connected to the original UF Health Proton Therapy Institute building.

“Once the equipment arrives and is installed in mid-November, we will have completed about 70 percent of the expansion project,” said Stuart Klein, executive director of the UF Health Proton Therapy Institute. “The majority of time leading up to completion will be spent assembling the equipment, conducting quality assurance and commissioning it for patient treatment.”

The equipment left the IBA factory in Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium, on Sept. 24 and was loaded onto a ship in Antwerp for departure Oct. 16. The next part of the journey will convey the equipment overland via truck from the Talleyrand terminal to the UF Health Proton Therapy Institute at 2015 North Jefferson St. and is estimated to take place on Nov. 12-14. Installation of the equipment is scheduled to take place Nov. 12-15.

The cyclotron is the accelerator that speeds up the protons used in proton therapy. According to IBA, it is a specially designed superconducting synchro-cyclotron — a new technology that reduces the accelerator weight and energy consumption by a factor of four. It weighs 55 tons, roughly the weight of 3.5 standard school buses. In comparison, the cyclotron used in the existing facility since 2006 weighs 220 tons, roughly the weight of two 757 airplanes.

The gantry is the 100-ton machine that rotates around the patient in the treatment room to deliver the proton beam. The Proteus^®ONE delivers the proton beam to the target using Pencil Beam Scanning, or PBS. PBS delivers intensity-modulated proton therapy, a technique that conforms to the size and shape of the treatment area and heightens dose uniformity, especially for complex tumors. It is equipped with image-guided proton therapy, a technology used for accurate patient positioning and rapid detection of anatomic changes throughout the course of treatment.

The addition is Phase 2 of a $39 million, three-phase upgrade and expansion project announced in early 2016. Phase 1 was completed in mid-2016 and included upgrades to the existing facility: rolling floors under the treatment tables in two gantries, a new imaging system and a new treatment planning system. Phase 3 involves retrofitting one treatment gantry in the existing facility with a dedicated PBS nozzle.

When completed, the facility will have five treatment rooms — four gantries and one fixed beam — and two cyclotrons. It is estimated the addition will increase patient capacity by 25 percent.

The UF Health Proton Therapy Institute is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization affiliated with the UF College of Medicine and the UF Health Cancer Center, a Florida Cancer Center of Excellence, dedicated to delivering state-of-the-art cancer treatment and setting new standards for treating and curing cancer. The cancer treatment facility houses both conventional radiation and proton therapy, and delivers proton therapy to 100 patients a day. For more information about the UF Health Proton Therapy Institute, please visit www.floridaproton.org, or call toll-free 877-205-4999.