A targeted beam of high-energy protons can kill cancer cells without damaging surrounding healthy tissue. Yet no facility in the Southern Hemisphere can currently deliver this kind of therapy.
Now momentum is building to include a Proton Therapy Unit as part of the planned expansion of SAHMRI, South Australia’s Health and Medical Research Institute.
Cancer specialist and former CEO of Cancer Council Australia Professor Ian Oliver said South Australia was the obvious choice to create a Proton Therapy Unit that would service Australia and the region.
For proton therapy, a purpose-built cyclotron accelerates the protons almost to the speed of light, and they are then directed through a probe to release their energy at the tumour site.
“The treatment itself takes less than two minutes,” said Prab Takhar, Director of the Molecular Imaging and Therapy Research Unit at SAHMRI.
“The protons do not interact with any other part of the body until the predetermined treatment point is reached, and the energy kills the cancer cells.”
Because it can be so precisely controlled, proton therapy is the best option for treating cancers when regular radiation is too risky due to small tumour size, or location adjacent to crucial organs like brain, spinal cord and heart.
Childhood cancers are especially suited to proton therapy.
Director of Radiation Oncology at the Royal Adelaide Hospital Associate Professor Michael Penniment said that working closely with a software developer and clinicians across Australia and the United States had also played a key role in advancing South Australia’s case.
“Phillips makes a lot of the software used for proton therapy,” said Director of Radiation Oncology at the Royal Adelaide Hospital Associate Professor Michael Penniment.
“By working with them, we were able to develop a method to perform objective comparisons between therapy with protons and other treatments.”
Early access to software from Phillips also allowed Professor Penniment to incorporate biological and mathematical modeling techniques to analyse the clinical impact of proton therapy on cancers and surrounding healthy tissues.
Professor Penniment’s team collaborates with medical institutions in the northern hemisphere that already operate proton cyclotrons and treatment centres.
SAHMRI, Flinders University and the Royal Adelaide Hospital have developed and contributed funding towards the AUD$280 million Proton Therapy Unit project.