New York State’s first proton center quickly became one of the country’s leading providers of proton therapy and successfully maintained patient care throughout the COVID-19 crisis
New York, August 11, 2020 — The New York Proton Center (NYPC), the first proton therapy facility in New York State, today celebrates its one-year anniversary since beginning patient treatment. During its first year of operation, the state-of-the-art facility in New York City treated more than 530 patients, making NYPC one of the busiest proton centers in the country–and the quickest to reach such a high volume of patients for proton therapy in one year.
A unique consortium of city-based institutions including Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Montefiore Health System, and Mount Sinai Health System partnered to launch NYPC in 2019. NYPC is one of only 36 proton centers in the US providing this innovative treatment.
Proton therapy targets cancerous tumors with millimeter precision while minimizing damage to surrounding organs and tissue. It has proven highly effective in treating a wide range of cancers, including complex brain, breast, gastrointestinal, lung, head and neck, and prostate cancers. NYPC’s highly experienced clinical team was recruited from around the world to provide the most effective treatment possible.
During its first year of operation, NYPC treated the most children with solid tumors in the tristate area. NYPC has also treated a higher proportion of adult patients who had aggressive cancers that recurred following conventional radiation therapy than any other proton center in the country. Proton therapy is often the only treatment that can offer these patients a new chance for a cure.
Despite the unprecedented difficulties posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, NYPC has continuously and safely been treating patients and providing care since the start of the pandemic in March.
“While we did not anticipate the challenges of COVID-19, we can look back on a successful first year of serving both many New Yorkers and patients from around the world as they pursued proton therapy to treat their cancer. We can offer them clinical excellence and cutting-edge treatment technology that minimizes side effects and better preserves quality of life compared with other types of radiation therapy,” said Dr. Charles Simone, FACRO, Chief Medical Officer at the New York Proton Center. “The New York region is not only the most populous metropolitan area in the country, which previously lacked access to this critical treatment, but home to the excellent academic medical centers with whom the New York Proton Center is proud to partner.”
The New York Proton Center is part of the ongoing commercial and residential redevelopment of the area surrounding East 125th Street in Harlem.
Looking ahead to year two, the center will expand the availability of this critical treatment while continuing to monitor and adapt to the public health crisis with the health and safety of its patients as its first priority.
For additional information, please visit www.nyproton.com.
About the New York Proton Center
The New York Proton Center is creating the gold standard for proton therapy, giving new hope to patients living with cancer. In partnership with leading academic medical centers—Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Montefiore Health System, Mount Sinai Health System, and ProHEALTH as manager—the New York Proton Center brings together expert oncologists, clinical care teams, and researchers to improve cancer care and advance the clinical evidence for proton therapy.
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