UAB Radiation Oncology, Rays of Hope Volume 5 issue 1 | Page 8

CLINICAL CARE UPDATE
PROTON TEAM VISITS CINCINNATI
Learning From A Recent Proton Start-Up
Lindsay Pruett poses with a building model of Proton International at UAB while attending
the 2018 National Association for Proton Therapy (NAPT).  
By: Lindsay Pruett  | Program Manager
In January, members of the department had the opportunity to visit Cincinnati
for the purpose of learning from peers at a recently opened center.  
Dr. John Fiveash, Dr. Richard Popple, Dr.
Sharon Spencer, Ginna Blaylock, Heather
Smith, and Lindsay Pruett spent the day at
the center touring and visiting with
different team members to learn from their
experience.

      Cincinnati Children’s Proton Therapy
Center located in Liberty Township, Ohio
and is one of only two such centers in the
world owned by a children’s hospital. The
proton center operates as two, single vaults
located on the Cincinnati Children’s
Liberty campus and treats up to 40
combined pediatric and adult patients per
day.
     Each patient has easy access to
comprehensive cancer-related services
including oncologist and other specialists,
surgery, central line care, lab testing,
inpatient care, and supportive services.
     “One of the biggest takeaways from
this trip was parallel planning of proton
versus photon a year in advance. The
idea is for our group to start parallel
planning early 2019 and to collaborate
with the team at Cincinnati Children’s
Proton Therapy Center for peer
review,” said Dr. Richard Popple.
     It was impressive that a number of
their staff members formerly worked
together at Scripps Proton Therapy
Center in San Diego, California. Most of
their processes had already been
established making the planning phase
from start to treating the first patient
easier.
     The visit to Cincinnati has helped our
PREP Team begin the initial planning
steps for UAB’s proton center.
ABOVE:  The Cincinnati Proton Center, ProBeam treatment
room, and treatment room anesthesia station.
7 | RAYS OF HOPE