White Plains CitizeNetReporter - M. D. Anderson “Cancer Blaster” Doesn't Have “Jing” Yet

Private fundraising efforts are underway to raise money to construct a proton accelerator facility at M. D. Anderson Medical Center in Houston, Texas. It is a model for the New York Presbyterian Hospital Plan B project. WPCNR interviewed Dennis Valencia of Optivus Technology in San Bernardino, California, on December 21 on the “cancer blaster’s” progress.

WPCNR has been keeping track of the progress of the proton accelerator cancer treatment apparatus as its proponents attempt to bring its technology East of the Mississippi River, most notably to New York Presbyterian Hospital in White Plains. It has been cleared for installation at M. D. Anderson Medical Center at the University of Texas, a big hurtle.

On the eve of the DEIS Public Hearing

The public hearing on the New York Presbyterian Hospital Plan B, which proposes to bring a proton accelerator to the White Plains campus, is scheduled for the first Common Council meeting of 2002 on January 8. One of the objections of opponents of the technology have is its cost: $100 million for construction.

Funding is not currently available, and appears in doubt since Governor George Pataki of New York State has slashed funding for biomedical research to a mere $10 million statewide. New York Presbyterian Hospital had been counting on a state grant of some $50 million to help fund their proton accelerator.

It should be noted that the source of the proton accelerator facility funding is not an issue covered in the scope of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement to be considered January 8.

Valencia updates WPCNR on the M. D. Anderson facility progress

When last we spoke with the articulate proton accelerator crusader, it was last spring when we discovered there has been a deliberate effort by the East Coast medical establishment to ignore the effectiveness of the proton accelerator in treatment of breast and prostate cancer. Urologists and cancer surgeons understandably have been reluctant to recommend proton accelerator treatment because it is not in their best interest (read financial) to do so.

This was confirmed by testimony of persons at public meetings last Spring, determining the scope of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement coming before the Common Council January 8.

Private funding efforts are under way. A model for New York Presbyterian Hospital?

Last spring, M.D. Anderson the cancer treatment center in Houston, Texas was seriously considering the proton accelerator. Now, Mr. Valencia reports, the Board of Regents of the University of Texas has approved a proton accelerator facility of the scope proposed for the White Plains New York Presbyterian Hospital property.

Mr. Valencia, who is Vice President of Sales & Business Development for Optivus Technology, the developers of the proton accelerator, reports that fundraising efforts to pay for the facility have begun.

Calling Movers and Shakers

“A group has been formed to raise the entire $100 million to construct the facility,” Valencia reported to us December 21. “The group consists of M. D. Anderson, a banking and financial consortium, and management consulting group which is working to secure the complete funding within a finite time period.”

Typically, Valencia told WPCNR, “The way a public-private financing operation works is that a facility makes a commitment for about 50% of the project, then works to fund the deal completely by organizing a financial structuring. We do not have the full funding of the proton accelerator yet (at M. D. Anderson).”

We asked Valencia, if he could describe the stage of the funding and the backers involved. He said it was “premature.”

Proton therapy gaining momentum.

However, Valencia said, “We’re gaining a lot of momentum now. Proton therapy is winning over many groups.”

Asked about local experts describing the gamma knife as a far less expensive alternative to proton therapy, Valencia dismissed the gamma knife as “a subset finite application.” He pointed out the gamma knife still exposed the patient to extensive excess radiation and side effects, that the proton accelerator did not. The accelerator, as Valencia has explained to us in the past, can deliver higher doses of protons, maximizing cancer kill on the tumor target, without affecting surrounding tissues, the cause of most radiation therapy side effects.

“Proton therapy is in its infancy, and is exploding into so many more applications,” Valencia said, citing its use in Taiwan, Japan, Switzerland, and Germany. He said that in a recent meeting of the American Society of Therapeutic Radiation Oncology, Herman Suit of Massachusetts General Hospital and Jay Loeffler, presented evidence of the proton accelerator “higher degree of success” in treating cancerous tumors over the gamma knife and traditional x-ray treatments.

Valencia added that New York Presbyterian Hospital traditional expertise in psychiatry would compliment treatment of cancer patients because of the psychological trauma involved in experiencing the disease.


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