Boca Raton Radiation Oncologists Join with ProCure Treatment Centers to Bring State-of-the-Art Proton Therapy to South Florida.

BOCA RATON, Fla. -- A group of leading community radiation oncologists, Boca Raton Proton Therapy, LLC (BRPT) and ProCure Treatment Centers announced today that they will develop a proton treatment center in South Florida, and expect to begin treating patients within 26 months of breaking ground.

Proton therapy is an effective alternative to conventional X-ray radiation treatments, but without many of the short- and long-term side effects patients often experience. Proton therapy can be precisely targeted to a tumor, allowing patients to receive higher, more effective doses, and greatly reducing damage to healthy tissue near the tumor.

The 58,000-square-foot center will be located in Broward or Palm Beach County with site selection near completion. The facility will be able to treat as many as 1,500 patients a year. The American Cancer Society estimates there were approximately 106,500 new cases of cancer in Florida in 2007. Radiation oncologists estimate about 60 percent of those patients (63,900) will receive radiation therapy at some point during treatment and, using conservative estimates, about 30 percent (19,170) of those patients could benefit from proton therapy. The South Florida Center will be the second proton therapy center in the State of Florida and one of a handful that will be operating in the United States by the time it is completed.

"Proton therapy is a highly precise and effective form of radiation therapy that can significantly benefit patients with cancer," said Hadley Ford, Chief Executive Officer of ProCure, which has a proton center under construction in Oklahoma and projects announced in two other states. "We are excited about the opportunity to collaborate with some of the premier radiation oncologists in South Florida to bring this important cancer treatment to the region."

"ProCure's ability to develop high quality proton therapy centers, their focus on clinical excellence and research, and their depth of experience in proton therapy were the determining factors in our decision to work with them,'' said Carlos Vargas, M.D., one of the lead physicians in BRPT. "We have been evaluating how to bring this advanced technology to South Florida and our patients. We believe we have found the right partner, who understands the complexities of developing proton centers and has already created solutions addressing those issues."

Editor's Note: Press materials are available at www.SouthFloridaProtonTherapy.com

About Proton Therapy

Nearly 50,000 cancer patients worldwide have taken advantage of the technology to effectively treat many types of solid tumors. Proton therapy can be precisely targeted to a tumor, allowing patients to receive higher, more effective doses, and greatly reducing damage to healthy tissue near the tumor. Proton therapy can be particularly effective in treating children, who are more sensitive than adults to the effects of radiation. Studies have shown proton therapy to be effective in treating prostate, colorectal, head and neck and brain tumors as well as cancers that cannot be removed completely by surgery. Studies also are showing promising results in the treatment of some breast and lung tumors.

Research shows proton therapy causes fewer short- and long-term side effects than traditional radiation therapy, diminishes the chances of secondary tumors and improves quality of life for patients.1,2,3

In 1961, the Harvard Cyclotron Laboratory at Harvard University in Boston began treating patients with proton therapy. Advances in imaging technology, such as CT, MRI and PET scans, helped researchers to better diagnose and visualize tumors and made proton therapy a more practical treatment option. The first hospital-based proton treatment center in the United States was built in 1990 at Loma Linda University Medical Center in Loma Linda, Calif.

In the United States, proton therapy is currently available at: Midwest Proton Radiotherapy Institute at Indiana University, Bloomington, Ind.; Frances H. Burr Proton Therapy Center at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston (affiliated with Harvard Medical School); The Proton Therapy Center at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center at University of Texas, Houston; Loma Linda University Medical Center, in Loma Linda, Calif.; University of Florida Proton Therapy Institute, Jacksonville, Fla. Two centers are scheduled to open in 2009, the University of Pennsylvania Roberts Proton Therapy Center in Philadelphia and the Oklahoma ProCure Treatment Center in Oklahoma City; and another center is under construction at Hampton University, Hampton, Va.

About BRPT

BRPT consists of leading radiation oncologists who have been practicing for an average of 19 years and is based in Boca Raton, Fla. The physicians who have joined BRPT are early adopters of innovative technologies used in the treatment of cancer. They have experience in treating cancer in a variety of sites, including head and neck, lung, breast, brain, bladder and prostate, and in pediatric patients.

About ProCure Treatment Centers, Inc.

Indiana-based ProCure Treatment Centers, Inc. was founded in 2005 by Dr. John Cameron, who played a pivotal role in the creation of one of the nation's first proton therapy treatment facilities, the Midwest Proton Radiotherapy Institute in Bloomington, Ind. ProCure provides management support and a proven model for the complete design, construction, operation and maintenance of proton therapy treatment centers in an effort to make proton therapy accessible to everyone who would benefit from the treatment. ProCure's Training and Development Center (TDC), the first proton therapy training center in the world, opened in March 2008 in Bloomington. The TDC provides world class training, technical development and program management skills for radiation oncologists, medical physicists, dosimetrists, radiation therapists and other staff involved in proton therapy treatment. ProCure will open its first proton therapy treatment center in Oklahoma City in 2009 and is planning to construct proton therapy centers in Illinois and Michigan. For more information about ProCure Treatment Centers, Inc., please visit www.procurecenters.com.

1. Miralbell et al. Potential reduction of the incidence of radiation-induced second cancers by using proton beam in the treatment of pediatric tumors. Int J. Radiat. Oncol. Biol. Phys. 2002;54(3) 824-829.

2. S. Ternier, Ph.D. Proton Therapy White Paper. On file.

3. MacDonald S., DeLaney T. and Loeffler J. Proton Beam Radiation Therapy. Radiation Oncology 2006, 24:199-208.