After a pause during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, construction on the new Proton Center at Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health’s Ann B. Barshinger Cancer Institute has resumed. The state-of-the-art facility will be the second in Pennsylvania to offer proton radiation therapy to cancer patients.
Proton therapy uses a positively charged proton beam that enters the body at a lower dose of radiation than conventional radiation therapy. When the beam hits the cancer it’s targeting, the dosage increases. The beam then stops, preventing the radiation from moving through healthy tissue and exiting the other side of the body. This enables healthy tissue to be spared, while maximizing the chances of attacking cancer cells.
Proton therapy is currently available at only a handful of specialized centers across the country. Penn Medicine is a global leader in the innovative therapy and has treated more than 6,000 patients since opening the Roberts Proton Therapy Center in Philadelphia in 2010, including patients from the Ann B. Barshinger Cancer Institute.
As part of Penn Medicine, LG Health’s Proton Center will employ the best practices in this emerging technology, bringing advanced options in cancer treatment to patients in our community. The Proton Center is expected to serve its first patient in early 2022. LG Health’s new Proton Center is big news in cancer treatment, so it’s only fitting that the construction equipment and technology involved also tip the scales. Some interesting facts:
The majority of the proton equipment will travel 4,500 miles from the factory in Troisdorf, Germany, to Lancaster. Boat and air shipments will be utilized to deliver equipment to the job site.
The vault, where proton therapy treatments will actually take place, will contain approximately 92,500 cubic feet of concrete. This translates into 420 concrete trucks, which if placed in a row would create a line of trucks about 3 miles long.
At 180,000 pounds, the cyclotron (proton accelerator) weighs about the same as a Boeing 737.
The combined weight of the accelerator and gantry—a machine that rotates around the patient to deliver proton therapy—is about the same as a diesel locomotive, at about 200 tons.
Employees Invited to Sign Final Steel Beam
LG Health employees were given a unique opportunity to leave their mark on the new Proton Center by signing a steel beam prior to being placed inside the structure. The beam, located outside the construction site near the employee entrance to the Cancer Institute, was available for employees to sign throughout October and early November. The last structural beam to be installed, it will be placed at the high roof level following installation of equipment, before the roof is closed permanently.