Varian Medical Systems announced late last week that it installed a cyclotron for the ProBeam system at St. Petersburg Center of Nuclear Medicine of the International Institute of Biological Systems. It's a Russian proton therapy center that features two gantries, and it will be the first dedicated proton therapy center in the country.

“Many of the centers in Russia are set up and designed for research projects, with some that offer treatment to patients,” Bill Hansen, director of marketing of the proton therapy division at Varian, told HCB News. “This center is the first proton therapy center in Russia that is dedicated to treating patients, so it’s a pretty big deal.”

The 90-ton cyclotron is considered a “core piece of equipment” to the ProBeam system. The system is capable of pencil beam scanning, which allows physicians to more precisely target a tumor without damaging healthy tissue and organs.
“Children benefit most from proton therapy because its precision allows [physicians] to minimize damage to surrounding tissue,” Hansen said. “Children are still under development, and their organs are also not fully developed yet, so anything we can do to minimize radiation effects is huge.”

He also said that proton therapy is ideal for cancers that are localized and haven’t spread throughout the body, such as prostate, breast, lung, and mouth and head and neck. It can also be used for more uncommon cancers like pancreatic and brain tumors.

Varian’s ProBeam is currently being utilized at the Scripps Proton Therapy Center in San Diego, the Maryland Proton Therapy Center, the Rinecker Proton Therapy Center in Munich, Germany and the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland.

The first proton therapy center in New York, New York Proton Center (NYPC), is scheduled to open in early 2018 in Manhattan and will also be supplied by Varian’s ProBeam system. NYPC will operate under a consortium that includes Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Mount Sinai Health System, Montefiore Health System, and ProHEALTH Medical Management.

“The ability to bring this technology and put it in the hands of some of the premier cancer programs in the world is something we’re very excited about,” Mitch Latinkic, vice president of worldwide business development at Varian, told HCB News at that time. “These facilities will use the technology to its fullest advantage and we're enthusiastic about that.”

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