The Willis-Knighton Cancer Center spent years outlining plans to bring proton therapy to its community in Shreveport, Louisiana. In September of last year they ramped-up the world's first ProteusONE compact proton therapy center.

Since then, the facility has maintained 98 percent uptime on the system and hasn't looked back. HCB News spoke to Dr. Lane Rosen, the facility's director of radiation oncology, about the first nine months in operation as well as proton therapy's increasingly central role in cancer care worldwide.

For Rosen, the success his team has experienced thus far with proton therapy can be credited to IBA's experience in proton systems — the company boasts over half of the facilities worldwide (18) with an additional 19 centers currently under development — as well as what he calls Willis-Knighton's "careful and efficient" approach to medicine.
"We were up and running just 11.5 months after our gantry was delivered," said Rosen. "And there were no prototypes because ours was the first [ProteusONE]." In preparation for that, he and his team underwent a variety of proton therapy training courses in the U.S. and overseas.

With over half of their patients enrolled in a study or registry, the team at Willis-Knighton is adding to the body of evidence to better understand appropriate use of proton therapy. A crucial step in illustrating the value of treatment to government agencies and private insurers.

Initially, Willis-Knighton had planned to move forward with installation from a different proton therapy manufacturer but ultimately chose IBA because of the benefits of pencil beam scanning, a more precise form of treatment than the double-scattering treatments that the other company offered.

The facility is currently averaging 15 minutes per patient for most indications, even with multiple fields, resulting in a daily volume of 20 patients per eight-hour day. That throughput may increase in August, when Cone Beam CT capabilities are added to the system — making it the first compact system with that kind of image guidance.

“The ProteusONE is the only compact system in the market today that incorporates both the most advanced pencil beam scanning and Cone Beam CT, setting a new standard in the Compact Proton Therapy market," said Beth Klein, President of IBA PT North America, in a statement. Adding that IBA has 10 ProteusONE systems currently installed or in process.

Willis-Knighton has been a national and international leader in radiation technologies and serves as a tertiary referral center for the surrounding region. Rosen said the facility specializes in brachytherapy image-guided procedures and is also a TomoTherapy Center of Excellence.

Rosen says throughout his life the rule of ALARA (As Low As Reasonably Achievable) has been a dosing mantra among radiologists, and with proton therapy he can treat his patients with less radiation exposure.

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