Maryland Proton Treatment Center treats first cancer patients

Baltimore, MD – The Maryland Proton Treatment Center in the works for years has treated its first cancer patients, according to the Unviersity of Maryland School of Medicine, which is operating the new center along with its Department of Radiation Oncology.

The $200 million facility in the university’s BioPark in West Baltimore houses a 90-ton cyclotron and is the first center in the eastern United States to offer proton therapy.

Officials believe a radiation dose from the new equipment will be more precise, increasing radiation’s impact on to tumors while decreasing it to nearby healthy tissue and organs and causing fewer side effects.