Smaller-Scale Options Enter the Market

By Charlotte Huff

Hospital administrators considering how to shoulder hefty debt and operations costs for a large-scale proton therapy center may soon benefit from a field of expanding, and likely cheaper, options.

In late 2006, Belgium-based IBA Particle Therapy announced the launch of its first compact proton therapy system, which will cost $30 million or less, depending upon how it’s configured, according to marketing director Stephen Sledge. Smaller centers, with one treatment room, could make proton therapy available to regions with just 1 million to 5 million people, rather than the 10 million needed to justify a larger-scale facility, according to IBA officials.

More recently, imaging giant Varian Medical Systems, Palo Alto, Calif., threw its hat in the proton ring, announcing in early January that it would acquire ACCEL, a German-based proton therapy supplier. As the “undisputed gorilla” in cancer imaging, that competitive move caught everyone’s attention, says Brian Baker, vice president of Regents Health Resources, a Nashville, Tenn., consulting firm specializing in imaging services.

A company near Boston, privately held Still River Systems, also has attracted significant interest in its ongoing pursuit of a single-room proton system. Several hospitals, including Tufts-New England Medical Center and Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, have already announced intentions to acquire the system, which is being developed in conjunction with scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Still River hopes to have FDA clearance by 2008, says Kenneth Gall, the company’s chief technology officer.

Both Still River and IBA officials say their smaller systems could be used as building blocks, with additional treatment rooms added later. That flexibility, Gall says, should appeal to hospital administrators worried about becoming overextended. “It takes time to build up a patient base,” he says. “To have a large facility, some of those rooms may be sitting idle until you build up enough patients.”

This article 1st appeared in the March 2007 issue of HHN Magazine.

To respond to this article, please click here.