OKLAHOMA CITY -- ProCure Treatment Center Inc. and its physician partners broke ground on Oklahoma’s first proton cancer treatment center in a ceremony on April 9. Cambridge, MA-based architectural firm Tsoi/Kobus & Associates (TK&A) designed the facility, the fifth such proton therapy center the firm has designed in the United States.The new center, named the Oklahoma ProCure Treatment Center, is located along a growing medical corridor in northwest Oklahoma City and will be the nation’s first private practice proton center. The 54,000-square-foot facility, featuring four proton treatment rooms, will provide access to as many as 1,500 cancer patients per year in Oklahoma to proton therapy, considered the most advanced form of external radiation therapy available for treating cancer.Scheduled to open in summer 2009, the Oklahoma ProCure Treatment Center will include two inclined-beam rooms, one fixed horizontal beam room, and one gantry treatment room, giving radiation oncologists broad versatility in selecting the precise proton treatment for a variety of localized cancers, including prostate, brain, lung, head and neck, and pediatric cancers. TK&A’s design of the facility accommodates future expansion as needed, and ProCure will adapt the template for multiple locations around the country in the future. TK&A is the nation’s foremost designer of sophisticated facilities for proton therapy.Of the seven proton therapy centers in operation or under construction in the United States today, TK&A has designed five: the Northeast Proton Therapy Center at Massachusetts General Hospital, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, the University of Florida Proton Therapy Institute, the Roberts Proton Therapy Center at the University of Pennsylvania Health System, and the Oklahoma ProCure Treatment Center.Proton therapy uses a controlled beam of protons to halt the growth of cancer cells in a tumor. The procedure is noninvasive, painless, and destroys tumors while greatly reducing damage to the surrounding, healthy tissue. Proton therapy’s ability to precisely target tumors makes it ideal for treating tumors near vital organs, particularly in children, who are more sensitive than adults to the effects of radiation. Nearly 50,000 cancer patients worldwide have been treated with proton therapy.One of the largest architectural firms in the Northeast, TK&A specializes in four markets: health care, research and development, commercial real estate, and higher education-projects that often involve intensive programs and systems, complex urban contexts, and permitting, operational, budgetary, and schedule challenges. TK&A has received more than 70 design awards in the past decade, and has been recognized byArchitectural Recordmagazine as one of the country’s “Best Managed Firms,” byEngineering News-Recordas one of the top 500 design firms, and byArchitecturemagazine as one of the Top 50 Global Giants.Contact:Tina Vaz,Tsoi/Kobus & Associates Inc., (617) 475-4335,[email protected],www.tka-architects.com
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