First New Jersey Proton Therapy Center Breaks Ground

New Center Will Offer Advanced Cancer Treatment

SOMERSET, N.J. – April 7 – Cancer survivors joined representatives from ProCure Treatment Centers, Inc. (ProCure), Princeton Radiation Oncology (PRO), and CentraState Healthcare System to break ground on the ProCure Proton Therapy Center in Somerset – the first proton therapy center to be built in the state, located 40 miles from downtown Manhattan. When completed, the Center will be one of only a handful of centers in the nation to offer proton therapy, an advanced form of radiation treatment for cancer that does less damage to healthy tissue and has fewer short- and long-term side effects.

More than 150 people attended the groundbreaking ceremony including former proton therapy patients, physicians and community residents.  The ceremony was held at the site of the future Center, 101 – 103 Cedar Grove Lane, in Somerset (Franklin Township).

Cancer survivor, Sherry Sperring, shared her experience with proton therapy and welcomed the facility to the area. “Proton therapy not only saved me from paralysis, but it improved my prognosis from an 86 percent chance of recurrence to 5 percent,” said Sperring, Boyertown, Penn. In 2009, she was referred by Dr. Todd Flannery, a PRO radiation oncologist, for proton therapy to treat her chondrosarcoma (a spinal tumor) at the Francis H. Burr Proton Center at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston.  “ProCure’s center in New Jersey will give much needed access to proton therapy for people with specific needs like me.”

According to statistics from the American Cancer Society, about 48,000 people in New Jersey and 101,000 in New York were diagnosed with cancer in 2009.  Using conservative estimates, approximately 27,000 of those patients could be candidates for proton therapy. 

Research has shown that proton therapy causes fewer short- and long-term treatment side effects than traditional X-ray radiation therapy, diminishes the chances of secondary tumors and improves patients’ quality of life.  The precision of proton therapy greatly reduces the type of damage often caused by radiation treatment because the majority of its energy is deposited directly in the tumor rather than in surrounding healthy tissue or nearby organs. Proton therapy is especially effective for treating a broad range of tumors including head and neck, brain, central nervous system, prostate, lung, sarcomas, gastrointestinal and many pediatric cancers.

“We are thrilled to have the Center under construction, bringing us steps closer to offering this important treatment option to our patients,” said Brian Chon, M.D., a radiation oncologist and partner with Princeton Radiation Oncology, the radiation oncology practice that will provide clinical care at the Center. “Physicians in our practice have experience with proton therapy and have seen firsthand the benefits it can provide to our patients. We are anxious to begin treating patients in 2012.”
“The radiation oncologists of Princeton Radiation Oncology are exceptional in their dedication to their patients and their vision for this proton center.  We are very pleased  to be working with the PRO physicians and with CentraState, a health system that shares our dream and that will have an extensive array of services available to patients who may have medical needs beyond proton therapy,” said Hadley Ford, CEO of ProCure.

“We are honored to be affiliated with this Center,” said John T. Gribbin, FACHE, president and CEO of CentraState Health System of Freehold, N.J.  “The time is past due to have a proton therapy facility in this state. The proton center will elevate care here to a new level and provide us with a powerful option for treating cancer.”

The $160 million, 60,000-square-foot facility will create 400 temporary jobs while construction is under way and 100 permanent professional jobs when it opens in 2012. New Jersey-based contractors are being used to build the center, which is privately financed, and the equipment to be used in the Center has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. 

The facility will have four treatment rooms with the capacity to treat approximately 1,500 patients annually. 

To learn more about proton therapy and the Center, visit procure.com/nj or call 888-592-2854.

ABOUT PROCURE TREATMENT CENTERS, INC.
ProCure Treatment Centers, Inc. is a privately held health care company dedicated to improving the lives of patients with cancer by increasing access to proton therapy.  The company was founded in 2005 in Bloomington, Ind., and is the first to develop a network of proton therapy centers in cities across the United States. Its first center, the ProCure Proton Therapy Center in Oklahoma City, opened in 2009. Centers are under construction in Warrenville, Ill. and Somerset, N.J.; and others are in development in Seattle, Detroit and South Florida. ProCure provides management leadership and a comprehensive approach for the design, construction, financing, staffing, training and day-to-day operations of proton therapy centers.  ProCure’s solution reduces the time, cost and effort necessary to build and operate a facility. ProCure is advancing proton therapy by collaborating with radiation oncology practices and hospitals to develop centers, through innovation and improvements in technology, and by providing training at the world’s only educational facility specializing in proton therapy.  For more information, visit procure.com

About CentraState Healthcare System
CentraState Healthcare System is a non-profit community health organization consisting of an acute-care hospital, an ambulatory care campus, three senior living communities, a Family Medicine Residency Program, and a charitable foundation. It is a member of the Robert Wood Johnson Health Network and a clinical research affiliate of The Cancer Institute of New Jersey, a National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center.  For more information, visit www.centrastate.com

About Princeton Radiation Oncology
Princeton Radiation Oncology (PRO), a division of Princeton Radiology Associates PA, is a 10-physician group of board certified radiation oncologists who practice at five accredited cancer centers in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The radiation oncologists, together with their team of specialized physicists, dosimetrists, therapists, and nurses, provide patients with an array of advanced cancer treatments in an intimate, patient-centered environment.  PRO physicians are respected leaders in their field, having trained in and served on the faculties of some of the most prestigious institutions in the country. All have published literature in radiation oncology and many have been named as Top Doctors by their peers. A number of the PRO physicians have personal experience with advanced proton therapy from their training at Harvard’s Massachusetts General Hospital. 

Princeton Radiology Associates (PRA) is a 33 physician group practice which provides diagnostic radiology services at one hospital and four imaging centers in central New Jersey, as well as radiation oncology services through PRO. In addition to providing direct patient care, the physicians of PRA established a research division, Princeton Radiology Pharmaceutical Research (RadPharm), which is now an internationally recognized leader in the evaluation of the efficacy of novel pharmaceutical agents for the treatment of cancer and other diseases.
For more information, visit www.princetonradiationoncology.com