Timeline: Proton Therapy

1895: German physicist W.C. Roentgen discovers X-rays, making detection of tumors in the body much easier and non-invasive. Roentgen later wins the Nobel Prize in Physics for this discovery.

1919: British physicist Ernest Rutherford demonstrates the existence of protons (elementary particles found in atoms).

1931: American physicist Ernest O. Lawrence invents the cyclotron, a machine used in proton therapy, which accelerates charged particles to high energy levels.

1937: The first clinical use of X-ray radiation therapy is carried out for the treatment of a patient with leukemia at the University of California at Berkeley. Congress passes the National Cancer Institute Act that authorizes annual funding for cancer research in the United States.

1946: American physicist Robert Wilson publishes a study that suggests protons could be used to treat cancer because they are capable of delivering an increased dose of radiation to a tumor while simultaneously decreasing radiation exposure to surrounding healthy tissue.

1948: The first proton therapy experiments are conducted at the University of California at Berkeley. Tumors are effectively removed from the chest and lungs of animals.

1954: The University of California at Berkeley treats the first human patient with protons. Patients are treated with proton therapy at other research institutions, including Harvard University in Boston.

1980s: Advances in imaging technology, including CT, MRI and PET scans, help researchers to better diagnose and “see” tumors, making proton therapy, which requires identifying the precise location of a tumor, a more practical treatment option.

1990: The first hospital-based proton treatment center in the United States is built at Loma Linda University Medical Center in Loma Linda, Calif.

2001: The first patient is treated at Harvard/Massachusetts General Hospital’s Francis H. Burr Proton Therapy Center in Boston, the second hospital-based proton treatment center in the United States.

2003: The Midwest Proton Radiotherapy Institute (MPRI), the third proton therapy center in the United States, opens in Bloomington, Ind.

2005: Dr. John Cameron, a pioneer in the field of particle physics who was instrumental in the development of MPRI, founds ProCure Treatment Centers, Inc. to improve the lives of patients with cancer by increasing access to proton therapy.

2006: The first patients are treated with proton therapy at M.D. Anderson Cancer Treatment Center in Houston and the University of Florida Proton Therapy Institute (UFPTI) in Jacksonville.

2009: The ProCure Proton Therapy Center in Oklahoma City opens July 8, 2009.

2010: The University of Pennsylvania Roberts Proton Therapy Center opens in Philadelphia.
Hampton University Proton Therapy Institute in Hampton, Va. treats first patient in Sept.
CDH Proton Center, A ProCure Center opens in Warrenville, Ill. Oct.19; treats first patient in October.

Web site: www.procure.com/mi

Media Contact: Sky Opila, PCI
312/558-1770
sopila@pcipr.com