by
Gus Iversen, Editor in Chief | October 24, 2025
Corewell Health's Proton Therapy Center in Royal Oak, Michigan
A four-year, $2.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health will support Corewell Health’s efforts to develop a next-generation proton therapy delivery system designed to reduce cancer treatment times.
The Southfield, Michigan-based health system is advancing a technology called dynamic Spot-Scanning Proton Arc (SPArc) therapy. Researchers at Corewell’s Proton Therapy Center in Royal Oak aim to streamline radiation delivery through continuous, rotating proton beams, potentially shrinking treatment times from 30 minutes to as little as five.
Xuanfeng (Leo) Ding, Ph.D., a medical physicist at Corewell Health William Beaumont University Hospital, is leading the project. His team is working to create a clinical algorithm that personalizes radiation doses with higher precision, while decreasing damage to surrounding healthy tissue.
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“Each patient needs a custom plan,” Ding said. “Right now, these plans consist of thousands of proton energy layers and millions of proton spots to optimize and calculate, which is a significant computational effort even for modern advanced computers. We want to make that process much quicker while finding the best solution for the patient.”
Dynamic SPArc therapy differs from standard proton therapy by using a continuously rotating gantry instead of static or stepwise beam angles. While conventional methods like intensity-modulated proton therapy require beam interruptions that prolong treatment, SPArc aims to deliver radiation in a single, fluid motion.
Corewell previously treated a patient using an early version of this approach, eliminating a difficult salivary gland tumor. However, treatment planning was time-intensive and required extended sessions. The current research aims to reduce planning complexity and automate portions of the process.
The study includes collaborators from the University of Pennsylvania, Mayo Clinic, Northwestern University and the New York Proton Therapy Center.
According to Ding, early data suggest the method may be particularly beneficial for cancers in sensitive areas such as the brain, head and neck, lungs, and liver.
