Prostate Cancer Blog – Proton Therapy for Prostate Cancer

One of my visits to a men’s prostate cancer support meeting resulted in listening to a few men talk about “What was the best diaper to wear?” post surgery. One great guy I met was talking about his “Brachytherapy” seeds implant and explained that they migrated and now he wears an “External Bladder”, well I was shocked as I never heard of that.

Reminds me how fortunate I was to find Loma Linda in 1999. Now, I have been without side effects whatsoever for 8 years and six months since being treated.

My Doctor at Loma Linda has this to say:
“When I treat a prostate cancer patient with protons, the total normal tissue dose is ~ 250% less than with sophisticated x-ray therapy.” He has treated over 6,000 men with Prostate cancer.

A recent CBS News article dated March 18, 2008 talks about the high cost of Proton equipment and at the same time misses completely the huge cost of follow up for almost every other treatment. They cite the new Proton effort at University of Pennsylvania to be up and running next year.

One doctor reminds us “The current Medicare reimbursement rates reflect the expense associated with developing this technology. This is not unique to proton therapy and has been applied to other emerging medical technologies. As the cost of the technology inevitably decreases, so will the cost of treatment.”

I AM A LAYMAN, NOT A DOCTOR. You are welcome to call me, send an e-mail to jjtug msn.com and I’ll provide a number – I have devoted over 3 hours each day to Protons since 1999 and my website receives about 6 – 8,000 hits each month.

Jim Tuggey
March 22, 2008

• My latest talk on Protons was presented at Las Colinas Medical Center, In Las Colinas, Texas to an US TOO group meeting under the banner of National Cancer Institute on February 5th, 2008.
• US TOO is a network of hundreds of support group chapters for men with prostate cancer.

This information brief at 7 PM, Feb. 5th, was scheduled for 30 minutes with 15 for questions and lasted 90 minutes. This is the second time I have talked at this chapter and I always appreciate the opportunity. I always weaken my case a bit by starting with the following Caveat:

NO MEDICAL ADVICE: Material appearing here represents opinions offered by non-medically-trained laypersons. Comments shown here should NEVER be interpreted as specific medical advice and must be used only as background information when consulting with a qualified medical professional.

However, when we finish the Power Point presentation and bring Protons to everyone’s attention there are always two reactions.

One, the people who have already taken action are either 1) resigned to their decision, or 2) mad because no one told them about Protons.

Two, the men who are there to decide what to do, are almost always excited and happy. They are amazed to find that so many people have been treated with Protons, and the fact that I stand before them at 78 years old, eight years and five months since PROTON treatment with NO side effects.

This is an important information effort that I will pursue for the rest of my life.

Jim Tuggey
Feb. 10, 2008

A 12/26/07 article in the New York Times, Cancer Fight Goes Nuclear, With Heavy Price Tag brought the Proton up front. Not all positive but all in all alerts a great number of people to the Proton capability.

Price seems to be the concern in this article; while *I* am sure that Curing Cancer should be at the forefront above all else!

Nothing will stop this important Proton therapy. ALL my systems work today, December 31, 2007. We now have two additional Proton Therapy Centers developing, an increase from the number just reported in my Blog of early December:

A second proton center in the heavily populated Chicago area

Central DuPage would like to see its first patient by 2010. Jim Spear, the hospital’s executive vice president and chief financial officer, said it’s ready to break ground on its Winfield campus “the very day” of board approval. The hospital plans to spend about $140 million on its facility. “We have everything else in place,” he said. “All our financing is secured (from private investors). All our architectural plans for building the building are secured. We have equipment on order. So we’re technically in good shape to start. All we need is the proper approval by the planning board.” Central DuPage also is partnered with ProCure Treatment Centers Inc., a Bloomington, Ind.-based firm that specializes in developing proton therapy centers.

And, a Second Proton Center in Oklahoma City:

Bloomington, Ind.-based ProCure Treatment Centers is building a four-gantry proton center in far northwest Oklahoma City along the Kilpatrick Turnpike.

ProCure has said the cost of its Oklahoma City treatment center, the first of several, will approach $100 million. ProCure has also raised private investment capital to build its treatment centers.

My personal treatment has resulted in NO Side Effects from a NON-INVASIVE treatment with Protons over 8 years and four months ago.

Just diagnosed? Send me an e-mail at jjtug @ msn.com for information.

WORLDWIDE PROTON THERAPY FACILITIES
Proton Therapy facilities in Operation (Ref: Particle Therapy Co-Operative Group):

Name and Country	Online Since	Treated as of
ITEP Moscow, Russia St Petersburg Russia PSI Villigen Switzerland Dubna Russia Uppsala Sweden Clatterbridge England Loma Linda California USA Nice France Orsay France iThemba Labs S. Africa MPRI Bloomington IN. USA TRIUMF, Vancouver Canada HMI Berlin Germany NCC Kashiwa Japan HIBMC Hyogo Japan PMRC(2) Tsukuba Japan NPTC, MGH Boston MA USA INFN-LNS Catania Italy Shizouka Japan Wakasa WERC,Tsuruga Japan WPTC, Zibo China MD Anderson Houston TX USA FPTI Jacksonville FL USA	1969 1975 1984 1999 1989 1989 1990 1991 1991 1993 1993 1995 1998 1998 2001 2001 2001 2002 2003 2002 2004 2006 2006	3927 Dec 2006 1320 Oct 2006 4646 Dec 2006 318 July 2006 738 Dec 2006 1584 Dec 2006 11414 Dec 2006 3129 Sep 2006 3766 Dec 2006 486 Dec 2006 220 Dec 2006 111 Sep 2006 829 Dec 2006 462 Nov 2006 1099 Sep 2006 930 Jul 2006 2080 Oct 2006 114 Oct 2006 410 Nov 2006 33 Aug 2006 270 Jul 2006 114 Dec 2006 15 Dec 2006

TOTAL AS SHOWN IN THE REPORT – 47,131 (Includes 9,116 as below)

NOTE: Harvard in conjunction with Mass. General Hospital started treatment in 1961, treating 9,116 people prior to moving to their new facility – Francis H. Burr Proton Therapy Center – Massachusetts General Hospital – Harvard, Boston, MA

All of these numbers are as of the Month and Year mentioned in the right column, Loma Linda at this time is well over 12,000 persons treated so the actual number is larger.

NOW LET’S LOOK AT WHO’S BUILDING THIS CAPABILITY

Name and Country	Expected Opening
RPTC Munich Germany PSI Villigen Switzerland NCC Seoul Korea CNAO, Pavia Italy Heidelberg/Darmstadt Germany WPE Essen Germany PTC Marburg Germany UPenn USA	2007 2007/2008 2007 2009 2007 2009 2010 2009

(All of the above under construction)

NOW LET’S LOOK AT WHO’S PLANNING THIS CAPABILITY

Name and Country	Expected Opening
Med-Austron Austria Trento, Italy iThemba Labs South Africa RPTC Koeln Germany CPO Orsay France Northern Illinois PT USA	2011 2010 2009 2011 2010 2011

(All of the above extracted from the ptcog report for 2007.)

NOW LET’S LOOK AT WHO ELSE IS PLANING THIS CAPABILITY

“Oklahoma City is about to get another significant tool in its medical toolbox, as Chris Chandler, senior vice president of sales and marketing for ProCure Treatment Centers, puts it.
ProCure, along with partners Radiation Medicine Associates (RMA) and Radiation Oncology Associates (ROA), said on Tuesday it will open the nation’s first private practice proton treatment center in 2009.
Chandler said a location and specific timeline for the center will be announced in March. The 55,000-square-foot facility is expected to cost more than $100 million to build and will have more than 100 full-time employees who will make in excess of $100,000 each. It will provide treatment to more than 1,500 cancer patients per year, and half of those will be from outside the metro area.” (Excerpted from their Press release.)

Hampton, VA – Hampton University has received the final approval needed to begin construction on the Hampton University Proton Beam Therapy Center, which will be used in the treatment of cancer. Approvals from the Eastern Virginia Health Systems Agency and the Virginia Department of Health led to the Center receiving the certificate of public need, a requirement for all major health-care projects in Virginia.
“This project will bring state-of-the-art cancer treatment to Virginia,” said HU President William R. Harvey. “The Hampton University Proton Beam Therapy Center will ease human suffering and save lives.”
Proton beam therapy is a type of radiation that can precisely target tumors while sparing surrounding tissue and causing far fewer side effects than traditional radiation. Currently there are only three other proton beam therapy centers operating in the country, located at Indiana University; Loma Linda Medical Center in Southern California and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. About 5,000 treatment slots are available at these three facilities.
The city of Hampton has donated six acres of land off Magruder Boulevard to Hampton University to construct the Proton Beam Therapy Center. Once construction begins, the $189 million Center will take 36 months to build.
The Center will treat about 2,000 patients a year and will focus primarily on prostate cancer but will also treat patients with breast, lung eye and pediatric cancers. (Excerpted from their Press release.)

There are other PROTON TREATMENT CENTERS in PLANNING leading to a Proton network that will greatly enhance the ability of our Doctors to treat Prostate Cancer and many other cancerous and non-cancerous conditions with little or NO side effects.

I completed PROTON treatment on August 27, 1999, over eight years ago this past August 27th, 2007, for Prostate Cancer at Loma Linda University’s Proton Treatment Center, in California.

My admiration for Dr. James M. Slater is limitless. His work to establish a Proton Center at Loma Linda has resulted in a personal freedom from worry that I cannot express adequately. As of this writing I have no evidence of Prostate disease due to the wonderful Proton capability at Loma Linda. I have been so impressed that one objective occurred to me, to insure that I spread the word about “Protons” to as many men as I can in my remaining lifetime. In this regard, I have written every Senator and Congressional Representative twice, the first time in 2000. Now I am beginning the third round.

I cannot express the depth of my personal happiness when men and often their wives have walked up to me and said, “You have saved my life!” Of course, Protons have, not me; however I am happy that my Web site that receives as many as 10,000 hits a month, opening right after my final treatment has helped these men make a decision to go to Loma Linda. In fact, one of my best friend’s mother-in-law has had her sight restored by Proton treatment and the versatile and expert doctors who handle Proton treatment at Loma Linda.

My life has been changed by Dr. Slater’s efforts and through my professional relationship with the amazing Loma Linda staff who have guided me through the treatment and follow-up, the latest on November 14, 2007.

God Bless Dr. James M. Slater

For your information, over $2 Billion has been spent or planned for existing sites or to build new Proton facilities at many US sites including:

Philadelphia, U of PA “Roberts Proton Therapy Center” Over $200mil Funded 2009
Hampton University Over $192mil Funded 2009
Northern Illinois University Unknown Planned 2010
Siteman Cancer Institute St Louis Unknown Planned
Oklahoma City Unknown Planned
Touro University, Mare Island CA. 1,200,000,000.00 Planned

Existing and operating Proton facilities (USA only – over 20 others exist worldwide) at a total cost of over $650mil:
• Loma Linda Proton Treatment Center – Loma Linda, CA (49 other body sites)
• Midwest Proton Radiotherapy Institute (MPRI) – Bloomington, IN
• Francis H. Burr Proton Therapy Center – Mass General Hospital – Harvard, Boston, MA
• M D Anderson Proton Therapy Center – Houston, TX
• Univ. of Florida Proton Therapy Facility – Jacksonville, FL

NEVER HEARD OF IT? THAT IS WHY WE TELL YOU ABOUT IT! – www.prostateproton.com. Talk to a Proton expert before you finalize your treatment decision.

Even though outcomes for the proton treatment equal or better any other approach with reduced side effects, all of these operating centers are spending millions on research and technical advances to expand the capability of the Proton.
Amazing is the fact that many men are still choosing to undergo invasive “Radical Prostatectomy”, invasive “Brachytherapy” or “X-ray Photon” procedures that damage non-targeted tissue.

Some day, this must change.

I have completed eight years of a great life after being diagnosed with prostate Cancer in 1999 and treated in 1999 at Loma Linda Medical Center’s, Proton Treatment facility in Loma Linda, California, completing that treatment on August 27, 1999.

At the time of my treatment you could only find two USA facilities that could treat you for Prostate cancer with Protons. LOOK AT THE LINKS tab above.

SINCE THEN three other centers have opened and are fully functioning at Bloomington, Indiana, (Midwest Radiotherapy Center), Houston , Texas (MD Anderson’s Proton Treatment facility), and Jacksonville Florida’s Proton Institute.

HERE’S THE HISTORY:

Robert Wilson in a paper published in 1946 while he was involved in the design of the Harvard Cyclotron Laboratory (HCL). The first treatments were performed at Particle accelerators built for physics research, notably Berkeley Ca, in 1954 and at Uppsala in Sweden in 1957.

In 1961, a collaboration began between HCL and the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) to pursue proton therapy. Over the next 41 years this program refined and expanded these techniques while treating 9,116 patients before the Cyclotron was shut down in 2002.

Following this pioneering work, the first hospital based proton treatment center in the United States was built in 1990 at Loma Linda University Medical Center, California (LLUMC), renamed the James M. Slater Proton Therapy Center. The Northeast Proton Therapy Center at Massachusetts General Hospital (recently renamed the Francis H. Burr Proton Therapy Center), was next, to which the HCl treatment program was transferred in 2001-2002.

Over 44,000 patients have been effectively been treated with proton therapy worldwide. The University of Pennsylvania is slated to open the biggest proton therapy institute in the world (in the Center for Advanced Medicine) in 2009. See what Ms. Murer has to say about Northern Illinois University’s Proton plans.

Touro University on Mare Island near San Francisco plans to spend 1.2 billion dollars to open their new proton Center and others are planned.

Jim Tuggey
September 10, 2007

Loma Linda University Medical Center’s Proton Treatment Center passed the 8,000 Prostate cancers treated level with Protons; 8,108 treatments through June 30, 2007.

The other good news is that at Loma Linda over 12,000 people have been treated with Protons for 21 other body sites. The daily input will increase for Prostate Cancer treatment at LLUMC after a Robotic System installation for patient positioning is completed later this year.

Who is treating Prostate Cancer with Protons Today?

• Loma Linda University Medical Center, Loma Linda, Calif.
• Francis H. Burr Proton Center, Boston
• Midwest Proton Radiotherapy Institute, Bloomington, Ind.
• MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas
• University of Florida Proton Therapy Institute, Jacksonville , Florida

Who is developing Proton Facilities NOW?

• Northern Illinois Proton Therapy Facility
• University of Pennsylvania
• Hampton University in Virginia
• Seattle Cancer Care Alliance
• Oklahoma City
• Siteman Cancer Center – St. Louis, Mo.

Please check out this article: Proton Therapy: Cutting-Edge Treatment for Cancerous Tumors – worth your time.

I finish eight years on August 27th, 2007 cancer and side effects FREE!

Jim Tuggey
08/02/2007

Professional responsibility. A paradigm case of the moral responsibility that arises from the special knowledge that one possesses. It is mastery of a special body of advanced knowledge, particularly knowledge which bears directly on the well-being of others, that demarcates a profession. As custodians of special knowledge which bears on human well-being, professionals are constrained by special moral responsibilities; that is, moral requirements to apply their knowledge in ways that benefit the rest of the society.

It seems reasonable that professional people who deal with men with Prostate Cancer have the responsibility to know all treatments that are available with proven efficacy, and provide that knowledge to patients seeking information upon which they make their very personal decision regarding Prostate Cancer treatment.

Unfortunately, I cannot find one word about Proton Treatment in the recent report from the American Urological Association Annual Meeting in Anaheim, California in 2007. Nor is the word Proton mentioned in the June 22, 2007 “Prostate Bulletin” from Johns Hopkins Medicine.

In my opinion, it is a disservice to the people seeking all reasonable cures to ignore the Proton.

As a former proton patient – in one month, eight years post treatment – I do not have any of the problems that are discussed in the reports from the AUA conference – no urinary dysfunction, no ED problem, no “Proctitis”; in fact nothing that is so readily discussed as a result from should I say “mainstream” prostate medicine and treatment.

What a shame!

James Slater Proton Treatment Center is the new name for the Loma Linda Proton Treatment Center in honor for the man who had the vision, staked his reputation, and followed through to see the Proton Treatment Center become a leading cancer facility with expert staff in making the Proton a viable treatment for the Prostate and many other body sites.

Protons are not new medicine; Harvard used Protons as early as 1961 and treated prostates in 1979.

Loma Linda’s Proton Center was the first built to treat patients in a Medical Center setting, in the world. Up to that time, while some were treating disease they generally were not flexible enough to treat all structural sites of the body. Loma Linda experts learned from scientific advances by many laboratories, universities, and industries and associated with Fermilab to build the center that opened in 1990.

The details about what, why, when, and where can be found in the LINK section of this site at the address: http://www.llu.edu/proton/patient/overview/medicaloverview.html

I continue to be overwhelmed by the stream of questions that come to me due to the web site and Blog. I am fine and blessed with the results of my treatment; I do not have side effects and hope that my experience gives men confidence to come forward early for treatment that minimizes the side effects.

And, stops scaring men who are diagnosed but do not know about Proton treatment. In my experience, given that men enter the program from all kinds of initial PSA values, Gleason and Staging, I know of very few men, treated with protons, who have had any problem with side effects.

Drop me an e-mail at jjtug msn.com and write Proton Treatment in the subject for a reply.

Jim Tuggey
June 1, 2007