JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A new Mayo Clinic cancer center will use technology that you can’t find anywhere else in the Americas for patients.
In 2021, 1,777,566 new cancer cases were reported in the United States. In 2022, 608,366 people died of cancer.
Since 2014, cancer has been the second leading cause of death in Florida, after heart disease.
On the campus of the Mayo Clinic is the brand new Duan Family Building. They are revolutionizing the way cancer is treated.
Lent Thielen is the President of Mayo Clinic Florida. The project started in 2019, and they will treat patients on July 7.
“It’s extremely rewarding to see the way our teams have come together across our Mayo Clinic organization to support this effort. It’s been a monumental task to bring heavy particle therapy to the Mayo Clinic and Jacksonville.
The team has dealt with the pandemic, international conflicts, inflation, and supply chain issues while getting this state-of-the-art building completed.
They will have several types of radiation therapy, conventional photon or x-ray therapy, photon therapy, or carbon ion therapy.
It will be the first carbon ion therapy in the Western Hemisphere. There are roughly 15 centers in the world, but this building will be the most advanced.
Just getting the technology here was a daunting task. This new facility could help 30 to 60 thousand patients.
Laura Vallow is the chair of radiation and oncology. Unlike some other cancer treatments, the carbon ion could be more direct at attacking cancer and more effective at stopping it from returning.
“The carbon will be more radio biologically effective in controlling the cancer, but also with less damage,” Vallow said.
For now, the carbon treatment will need to be approved by the FDA, but the team is hopeful it will. Carbon ion therapy is particularly effective against cancers resistant to traditional radiation.
The technology was shipped across the ocean and placed in the building by a massive crane. It’s manufactured by Hitachi.
Dr. Carlos Beltran, the chair of the Medical Physics Division, explained how the carbon ion technology would work.
“It starts off at rest and we have accelerated through different apparatus to get it to about 3/4 at the speed of light. Able to choose the exact energy of the carbon beam because the different energies will penetrate into the body at different depths,” Beltran said.
That energy would be used to attack the cancer in the body. It has to be as precise as a millimeter.
This same technology was being researched in the United States 30 to 40 years ago, but it never moved forward. Japan and other countries in Asia and Europe moved forward with the technology. Now the states have a chance to beat cancer with better technology.
The carbon treatment still needs to be approved by the FDA, but regardless of the treatment, the goal is that everyone who leaves here is cancer-free.
Mayo Clinic invested $320 million in the new building and its advanced cancer treatment technology. It’s expected to be used in 2028.
