UNC Health system has plans to add advanced proton therapy at its main campus to treat cancer patients particularly among its pediatric patients in the Triangle area.
Officials say proton therapy is one of the most precise forms of radiation treatment available. And, according to a release, it will be the first in the Triangle to offer it. The $40 million project will be located inside UNC Health’s main campus in Chapel Hill, instead of being a standalone building.
Dr. Jean Wright chairs the department of Radiation Oncology at UNC, which is also leading the project. She said proton therapy gets to hard-to-reach areas without affecting other tissue around it.
“So if you have a treatment where you're trying to target the spine itself, but you don't want to treat, for example, the bones of the spine, because for a child, those are very important for growth,” she said. “Or you don't want to treat the bowel or the other tissues that are in front of it. You can reach the target of the spine itself, but you can avoid all of the other tissues.”
The new expansion is also expected to help with travel barriers impacting pediatric patients.
“The reality is that some of our pediatric patients that we take care of here at UNC today, we actually have had to send to other centers, because it really is basically the standard treatment, and it's the best treatment, and we always want to make sure that we're giving the best treatment to our patients,” said Wright. “You know that obviously places a burden on our patients that live in the Triangle area to have to travel, especially pediatric patients."
Patients will also be able to get treated for all their needs within the building, where the proton therapy is located. Wright said the project is expected to be completed in January of 2028. Meanwhile, Duke Health is working on something similar. The health system expects to build a standalone proton therapy center by 2029.
