Two groups push proton therapy for cancer

A planned Knoxville cancer treatment center is set to become the first place in the state to offer proton therapy.
The state’s Health Services and Development Agency approved an application last week from Knoxville-based ProVision Trust to build a $118.8 million center and fill it with proton therapy cancer treatment equipment. ProVision has lined up support from the University of Tennessee Medical Center.
Proton therapy is considered a more precise form of radiation cancer treatment because it directly targets tumors without affecting surrounding healthy tissue.
It’s also more costly than more conventional radiation-based treatments.
ProVision, whose founder Terry Douglass made millions selling his CTI Molecular Imaging Inc. to Siemens in 2005, has lined up support from the University of Tennessee Medical Center.
“There is a big void in the Southeast, and we think we have an opportunity to develop that here,’’ Douglass stated. Only seven proton therapy centers are operating nationwide, he said, with the closest in Jacksonville, Fla., and Bloomington, Ind. Five others are under construction.
The Health Services and Development Agency, in approving the ProVision center 9-0, said the company must use appropriately trained and credentialed oncologists.