SAN DIEGO – San Diego County residents can get an up-close look at the region’s only proton treatment facility for cancer care, as Scripps Health will host a special open house Tuesday, Aug 25, from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Scripps Proton Therapy Center.
The free event will include tours of the facility, which opened for patient care last year, complimentary refreshments and appetizers and a presentation on proton therapy by the center’s medical director, Carl Rossi, M.D. Scripps Proton Therapy Center is located in Mira Mesa at 9730 Summers Ridge, Road, San Diego, Calif., 92121. To register to attend, please call 1-800-SCRIPPS (1-800-727-4777).
Proton therapy is an extremely precise form of external beam radiation treatment that spares more healthy tissue surrounding a patient’s tumor than convention X-ray radiation. Less radiation to healthy tissue lowers the probability of side effects and treatment-related cancers.
The Scripps Proton Therapy Center is the first in the nation to treat patients exclusively with pencil-beam scanning, which enables doctors to be far more specific with where they deliver the radiation dose compared to earlier passive scatter technology. Pencil-beam technology also allows doctors to vary the radiation dose within the tumor target, which previously was not possible.
Scripps Health provides the center’s clinical management services and Scripps Clinic oversees the medical services at the center. Advanced Particle Therapy is the center’s developer and owner. Varian Medical Systems of Palo Alto, Calif., developed, installed and validated the center’s ProBeam proton delivery system.
