From the May 2011 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine


There are other labor costs, too. Radiologic techs and other staff have to be trained on the new machine. This training averages six to eight weeks, at least for ProCure’s staff, who are sent to a training center with a mock unit in Indiana.

Building a center is also a lengthy process – from start to finish, it usually takes nearly two years. In the best case, it’s at least 10 months till building occupancy date (assuming permits acquisition goes smoothly – this varies considerably from state-to-state). Once that happens, the cyclotron-provider – in the U.S., basically Ion Beam Applications S.A. – moves in. They handle all the shipping, crating, installation and set-up through their own subcontractors. This takes, on average, another 14-16 months.


New technology brings it within reach?
However, some developers believe that new technologies might bring proton therapy in reach of more providers. The new technology does this by shrinking the size of the cyclotron or synchrotron and cutting out additional rooms.

Arguably, the two cheapest solutions in the works are one-room solutions. They have estimated total construction and equipment costs at around $20 million, between one-tenth and one-fifth the price of existing three- and four-room U.S. proton therapy centers.

“The future I believe is going to be single room systems, though not necessarily in all cases,” Bill Hansen, director of marketing with IBA, told DOTmed News.

Monarch250
A single-room treatment system designed by the Littleton, Mass.-based startup Still River Systems is among the cheapest known proton therapy options in development. Still River Systems’ cyclotron, dubbed the Monarch250, was developed in collaboration with Massachusetts Institute of Technology physicists. In an interview with Mass High Tech last year, Still River’s CEO Joe Jachinowski said that the superconducting magnet developed with MIT lets them “miniaturize the physics” and build a “much smaller cyclotron.”

Early published figures put the total cost of equipment and construction at only around $20 million. However, Jason Merrill, a spokesman for Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, a 1,228 -bed hospital getting the first Monarch250 installed this fall (first-treatment date is next year), said the costs have gone up slightly.

Proteus One
Belgian firm IBA has its own single-room solution in production. IBA said the Proteus One is a very “compact” cyclotron, with a short beam line and a smaller gantry so it has a footprint about one-third the volume of other IBA systems. For construction and the complete system – cyclotron, gantry, beam line and software – the company also expects a total cost of $20 million.

May 2011 Magazine

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