Only in South Florida: New technology could mean higher cancer cure rate
Only in South Florida: New technology could mean higher cancer cure rate
Only in South Florida: New technology could mean higher cancer cure rate
The Williams team opened the door and entered a room that was clearly in process.
"So this is your construction zone here," Williams said.
This is the current construction zone but it is desirable that it will soon become a home for the latest cancer treatments.
That's because inside the construction zone there is something called Cyclotron.
There are only two cyclotrons in the world and one of them is at the South Florida Proton Therapy Institute at Delray Medical Center.
"This machine is the future of radiation therapy," said Williams, who is the medical director of radiation oncology at Delray Medical Center.
At present, Delray Medical Center uses the same technology with hundreds of locations that stay sick differently in all countries, a machine called Variant Edge.
Edge uses photon radiation that can be very specific, solely targeting tumors and not affecting everything around them.
"Instead of basically bombing the carpet of the patient's internal visceral organs, we can concentrate more and target the place and forgive all the normal tissue around it," Williams said.
But the downside to Edge is that photons do not stop at the tumor.
"They continue downstream," Williams said.
In other words, they move past the tumor, potentially damaging the location of a healthy body.
Williams wrote that the Cyclotron was exponentially better.
This is certainly more exponential, weighing 600,000 pounds.
The $ 25 million machines were sent to Delray last August.
They need a crane to lower it piece by piece through the exposed ceiling and then put it inside.
Instead of photons, Cyclotron uses a proton, which stops at the tumor.
"Proton allows us to target the structure itself and not have a dose of normal tissue around it," Williams said.
This technology will enable doctors to treat tumors they have never achieved before.
They will also be able to treat all tumors with a higher dose of radiation.
"It is conceivable that we can increase treatment rates by 5%, 10%, 15% or even more, depending on the type of tumor we have," Williams said.
Construction must pass in Delray in the near future.
Cyclotron can be used to nurture patients at the beginning of June.
