Up to 1,500 patients a year could be treated at the $120 million ProCure Proton Therapy Center at Memorial Road and MacArthur Boulevard.
ProCure officials say it will be the sixth such center in the United States and the first opened by their Indiana-based company.
Proton therapy uses a 220-ton machine called a cyclotron to split atoms and create a beam of energy that destroys cancer cells more precisely than traditional radiation therapy. A similar center is planned as part of the OU Cancer Institute now under construction near downtown.
The ProCure center will open with 52 employees but will grow to twice that when evening shifts are added to treat additional cancer patients.
"We are serious about cancer care, and this is one more weapon in the toolbox to fight cancer,” said ProCure President Ed Bertels.
According to ProCure, about 250,000 cancer patients in the United States are candidates for proton therapy, but only 6,000 treatment slots were available at existing centers. The Oklahoma City center is expected to draw patients from many states for treatment periods that can last up to eight weeks.
Proton treatment damages less healthy tissue than radiation treatment, said Dr. Sameer Keole, a pediatric radiation oncologist who moved from the University of Florida to Oklahoma City to work for ProCure.
"An X-ray is a bullet causing damage across its path, but protons are like firecrackers — a sudden burst of energy in exactly one place. We want to put the firecracker in the middle of the cancer.”
He said children with brain tumors see less loss of brain function and IQ when treated with proton therapy.
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