First cancer therapies with new particle therapy

Marburg Ion Beam Therapy Center starts treatment of tumor patients
After many discrepancies and delays, the Marburg Ion Beam Therapy Center (MIT) started operations on Tuesday. As reported by the Heidelberg University Hospital, two patients will initially be treated with proton beams, and another treatment center is planned for 2016.
Dispute over costs delay the opening
Since yesterday, two tumor patients have been treated with the highly innovative particle therapy technology at the Marburg Ion Beam Therapy Center. In the run-up, there had been dispute over costs for years, causing significant delays in the opening. Actually, the operation would have had to be taken much earlier, because the Rhön-Klinikum AG had committed as an operator when purchasing the University Hospital Giessen-Marburg.

Picture: sudok1 - fotolia

After negotiations it came then with the assumption of the plant by the university hospital of Heidelberg to an agreement. More than 3000 patients have already been treated with the new technology at the Heidelberg Ion Beam Therapy Center HIT, according to the University Hospital Heidelberg.

Official inauguration on the 11th of November
As reported by the Hessian Ministry of the Environment in Wiesbaden, radiation protection specialists had "given the green light to start up the patient operation" on Monday. The therapy center will be officially inaugurated on November 11th.

"With the approval of the patient operation at the Marburg Ion Beam Therapy Center, which has now been granted, a highly advanced procedure for cancer therapy in Hesse will be approved," said Hesse's Minister of the Environment Priska Hinz. Because the new technology allows a more targeted treatment while sparing healthy tissue, the message said. (No)