As proton therapy adoption continues to gain momentum, a new partnership aims to increase access to the treatment for patients in India. Mumbai’s Tata Memorial Centre has contracted with IBA to open a multi-room ProteusPLUS proton therapy center.

The centre will have three treatment rooms that will include pencil beam scanning, a form of proton delivery that minimizes the overall radiation exposure to healthy tissue, making treatment more accurate and mitigating the likelihood of future complications.

Thomas Ralet, VP of corporate communications at IBA, told HCB News the agreement came about after IBA answered a global and formal public tender published by Tata Memorial. “We were easily qualified on the technical points, and after a final selection, IBA was chosen as preferred vendor,” he said.
In a statement, Dr. Rajendra Badwe, director of Tata Memorial Centre, said it was the ability to provide pencil beam scanning – coupled with IBA’s position as a leader in the proton therapy marketplace – that led to the signing of the agreement.

Due to the center’s patient population and location size, Ralet said the ability to give proton therapy access to close to 1000 patients per year may have made ProteusPLUS a better choice for the hospital than the company's single-room system, the ProteusONE.

With the addition of Tata Memorial Centre, IBA has over 25 projects that are already operational or at various stages of development. One of them, the Apollo Proton Therapy Centre, will also be providing treatment to people in India – but the project has been delayed due to a hold-up in obtaining clearance from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB), according to sources cited in Business Standard.

Both of the facilities are expected to open in 2019.

With three million people suffering from cancer in India, and one million new cases diagnosed each year, there are plenty of people who stand to benefit from access to proton therapy. According to Ralet, many of these patients are diagnosed with the disease once it has reached an advanced state.

"The Indian market therefore presents a very exciting opportunity for IBA, in collaboration with players like Apollo Hospitals and Tata Memorial, to address this growing need for high quality treatment,” said Ralet, adding that more than half of the worldwide proton therapy market is equipped by IBA.

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