Mark McDonald, MD, medical director of the Emory Proton Therapy Center, delivered the toast.
Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University clinicians and staff who work at the Emory Proton Therapy Center gathered there on December 1 to celebrate the center’s fifth anniversary. The center is the first and only one of its kind in Georgia and opened on December 4, 2018.
By the end of this calendar year, the Emory Proton Therapy Center will have completed treatments for over 3,500 patients from 31 states and territories since its opening. Nearly 1 in 5 treated individuals reside 100 miles or more away from the center.
Charles Oliveira was treated for prostate cancer with proton therapy. He says, “I would highly recommend the Emory Proton Therapy Center. The people are great. The teams are really good at making you feel comfortable. They make you feel welcomed.”
“As we celebrate five years of clinical care at Emory Proton Therapy Center, I am thankful for the dedication and hard work of our team, the support and collaboration of our care partners at Emory and in the community, and especially for the trust of so many patients seeking powerful and precise radiation therapy," says Winship physician-researcher Mark McDonald, MD, medical director of the Emory Proton Therapy Center.
Proton therapy is a painless, precise and non-invasive form of external beam radiation that can be used in the treatment of adult and pediatric patients with a variety of types of cancer and benign tumors.
McDonald says, "With proton therapy, we also celebrate the radiation we avoided giving to healthy tissues and sensitive organs, which can reduce side effects and risks of treatment. Both the quality of treatment that we deliver and the radiation we don’t deliver are key to our mission to improve the lives of our patients, families and communities through compassionate healing, advanced technology, innovation and research-driven care."
“The specialists at Emory Proton Therapy Center go above and beyond to individualize care specifically to each patient,” says Winship physician-researcher Reshma Jagsi, MD, DPhil, Lawrence W. Davis Professor and Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Emory University School of Medicine. “It is incredibly gratifying to see such compassionate application of this innovative technology that targets cancer so precisely. Proton therapy allows us to cure disease while still preserving quality of life with profound results, providing a beacon of hope for adults and children with cancer and those who love them.”
We are delighted to have provided proton therapy to individuals in Georgia for the past five years," expresses Suresh Ramalingam, MD, executive director of Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University. "The Emory Proton Therapy Center has expanded our range of cutting-edge therapeutic options at Winship, conveniently allowing our patients to access advanced cancer care close to home. In addition, the center has strengthened Winship's continued emergence as a national leader in cancer research and care."