Mevion Medical Systems’ S250 proton therapy system successfully treated its first patient, Rhea Birusingh, a new mother with a brain tumor near her right eye, at the Marjorie and Leonard Williams Center for Proton Therapy at UF Health Cancer Center in Florida.

The system is fully integrated with patient positioning and patient imaging and a 2-D/3-D and 3-D/3-D radiographic imaging system is used to confirm a patient’s position, and will apply final alignment corrections before treatment begins.

“Mevion’s mission is to improve access to proton therapy for patients like Rhea, so I am ecstatic that proton therapy has arrived in Central Florida in a time to allow Rhea to be treated without having to travel a great distance away from her home and her new son,” said Joseph K. Jachinowski, president and chief executive officer of Mevion Medical Systems, in a statement.
Prior to radiation therapy, Birusingh had blurry vision and then double vision, but everyone thought it was due to pregnancy, reported Orlando Sentinel. But a two centimeter wide tumor was found sitting close to her hippocampus, which helps with short-term memory, mood and motivation.

Since the tumor was located in a less-than-ideal region for surgery or traditional radiation, which could have damaged surrounding structures while destroying her tumor, proton therapy was the chosen course, the Sentinel also reported.

Unlike traditional radiation that uses X-rays, the beam from proton therapy can be directed and controlled to a precise location with less chance of harming surrounding tissue, and according to Dr. Omar Zeidan, chief of proton therapy physics at Orlando Health, is ideal for treating pediatric patients and complex tumors located near sensitive and critical anatomy such as the breast, heart spine, lungs or eye.

Mevion touts the lower capital and operating costs of compact proton therapy systems among benefits that make it attractive to hospitals who wish to provide the advanced treatment to their patients.

“To know proton therapy is the state-of-art treatment for my tumor and 45 minutes away from me, I think is a major blessing,” said Birusingh, in a statement.

In the following video watch the delivery of the center's 100-ton accelerator in late 2014.



The center is currently the third proton therapy center to open in Florida, along with Ackerman Cancer Center in Jacksonville and The University of Florida Health Proton Therapy Institute. Miami Cancer Institute at Baptist Health South Florida is scheduled to open a proton therapy center in July.

As of 2015, Mevion is to install a proton therapy system in Switzerland and is the first proton therapy system approved to treat cancer patients in Canada.

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