Skip to main content

Maryland Proton Treatment Center Celebrates Grand Opening

June 01, 2016

Facility Will Offer Precision Treatment For Many Cancer

The Maryland Proton Treatment Center celebrated the grand opening of its new $200 million, 110,000-square-foot facility in West Baltimore on June 1. More than 600 people – faculty members and staff, elected officials, community doctors and cancer survivors – attended the event. June 1 is National Cancer Survivors Day, and the event, which had a ‘Survivor’ theme, based on the reality TV show, also honored cancer survivors. The new facility is the first proton treatment center in the Baltimore-Washington area.

Speakers included:

The Maryland Proton Treatment Center offers proton therapy – a highly advanced and precise form of radiation therapy that can increase radiation dose to tumor while decreasing dose to healthy, surrounding tissue – to the Baltimore/Washington region and beyond. It is a highly effective treatment for a wide range of localized tumors such as those found in the brain, base of the skull, head and neck area, eye tumors, tumors of the esophagus, lung, prostate, liver, breast, spinal cord, as well as gastrointestinal malignancies. It is also an important treatment option for children with cancer.

“This is an incredibly exciting and historic moment for this institution, our state, and the many cancer patients who will seek care inside this new building,” said Dean Reece. “A little more than four years ago, we were gathered across the street to commemorate the official groundbreaking for this project. Behind the scenes, however, the Department of Radiation Oncology has been working tirelessly for more than a decade to bring this center to fruition.”

The event took place in an outdoor tent next to the facility. The inside of the tent looked like a “Survivor” location, with distressed wood furniture, live tropical trees and plants, pier pilings, wooden crates, vintage oak barrels, and heavy ship rope. In the center of the tent there will be a 15 foot tall hand carved “Tree of Life.”

The theme highlighted the center’s goal of helping patients survive their disease. Over 650 guests attended, including UMB and UM SOM leadership, faculty and staff of Radiation Oncology Department, patients, donors, referring physicians, elected officials, directors of the SOM Board of Visitors, the UM Research Park Corporation and UMB Foundation Board, developer and ownership team, contractors, architects, residents of the Poppleton community, members of the bioscience business community, and members of the greater Baltimore business community.

Many guests filled out the tribute tags to survivors that were hung on the Tree of Life. The event began with a video tribute from Jeff Probst, the host of the hit TV series “Survivor.” It ended with a video honoring Phoebe, a five-year-old cancer patient who came from Australia this spring to get treatment at the MPTC.

Learn More:

www.mdproton.com

Contact

Office of Public Affairs
655 West Baltimore Street
Bressler Research Building 14-002
Baltimore, Maryland 21201-1559

Contact Media Relations
(410) 706-5260

Related stories

    Tuesday, February 19, 2019

    Dr. Robert C. Miller, National Leader in Radiation Oncology, Named New Medical Director of Maryland Proton Treatment Center

    William F. Regine, MD, FACR, FACRO, The Isadore and Fannie Schneider Foxman Chair and Professor of Radiation Oncology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM), along with UMSOM Dean E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, announced today that Robert C. Miller, MD, MBA, FASTRO a nationally-recognized radiation oncologist who currently serves as Vice Chair in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Mayo Clinic, has been named Professor in the UMSOM Department of Radiation Oncology and Medical Director of the Maryland Proton Treatment Center (MPTC). He will begin his new position in April 2019.


    Monday, October 08, 2018

    High-Precision Proton Therapy More Effective in Treating Certain Cancers When Combined with Thermal Therapy

    The Maryland Proton Treatment Center (MPTC) is now offering deep-tissue external thermal therapy in combination with high-precision proton-beam radiotherapy as a potential way to boost survival chances for certain cancer patients. MPTC is the only center in the world to offer these two treatments at the same facility, an advantage to patients because these therapies are typically given within an hour of each other.


    Tuesday, September 04, 2018

    Maryland Proton Treatment Center Eyes Future, Strengthens Capital Structure with $277.4 Million Bond Deal

    The Maryland Proton Treatment Center (MPTC) announced today that it has taken a major step in strengthening its balance sheet and capital structure to better position it to treat a growing number of cancer patients with its state-of-the-art therapy.


    Thursday, October 27, 2016

    Dr. William F. Regine is Awarded 2016 Entrepreneur of the Year From the University of Maryland, Baltimore

    William F. Regine, MD, FACR, FACRO, the Isadore & Fannie Schneider Foxman Endowed Chair and Professor in Radiation Oncology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UM SOM) and Executive Director of the Maryland Proton Treatment Center (MPTC) has been awarded the 2016 Entrepreneur of the Year from the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB).


    Tuesday, February 23, 2016

    At University of Maryland, First Cancer Patients Receive Proton Therapy at New Maryland Proton Treatment Center

    The University of Maryland School of Medicine (UM SOM) announced today that the Maryland Proton Treatment Center (MPTC) has treated its first cancer patients with proton therapy at a new $200 million facility in the University of Maryland BioPark in West Baltimore.


    Wednesday, February 03, 2016

    UM SOM Announces 'Maryland Proton Alliance' to Advance Patient-Centered Cancer Care and Precision Medicine

    William F. Regine, MD, FACR, FACRO, Chairman of the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UM SOM), along with UM SOM Dean E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, today announced the establishment of the Maryland Proton Alliance (MPA), a new organizational framework for proton therapy at UM SOM that may serve as a national model for patient-centered cancer care. The Alliance will be led by Zeljko Vujaskovic, MD, PhD, Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology and head of the department’s Division of Translational Radiation Sciences. Dr. Vujaskovic succeeds Minesh Mehta, MBChB, who served as Medical Director of the Maryland Proton Treatment Center (MPTC) during its development from 2012 to 2015.