S’pore centre to offer proton beam therapy next year

SINGAPORE: It costs more, but proton beam therapy can target cancer cells with greater precision – and it could be available in Singapore by next year.

The Singapore Institute of Advanced Medicine Holdings (SAM) announced on yesterday that it has finished installing the cutting-edge ProBeam Proton Therapy System at its Proton Therapy Centre in Biopolis.

The centre, which is scheduled to open in early 2020, cost about S$150mil (RM457mil) to build.

Dr Kwek Boon Han, SAM’s chief medical officer, said proton therapy uses about 60% less radiation compared to conventional radiation therapy, which uses X-rays or gamma rays. This results in a lower risk of damage to healthy tissue around the tumour.

“To get sufficient radiation to the tumour in conventional therapy, a large dose of radiation is applied to the tissue before reaching the tumour.

There is also a significant remaining dose of exit radiation that affects normal tissue after hitting the tumour,” he said.

A proton beam, on the other hand, concentrates a high radiation dose only at specific target points using a thin “pencil beam” that outlines and “fills in” the region with the tumour in a manner similar to 3D printing.

This means healthy tissue on the beam’s path to the tumour receives only a low dose and there is no exit radiation as the beam does not go beyond the target area.

Dr Kwek added that proton therapy will halve the incidence of secondary cancers that can develop as a result of radiation treatment from 12.8% to 6.4%.

SAM’s chairman and chief executive officer, Dr Djeng Shih Kien, said proton therapy is especially helpful for cancers that are difficult to reach without affecting sensitive organs nearby, such as the brain, spine, head and neck cancers.

“Normal radiation therapy can come with severe complications. You may go blind or lose your hearing from being treated for head and neck cancer,” he said.

Conventional radiation therapy currently costs about S$25,000 (RM76,183) to S$30,000 (RM91,420).

Proton therapy at the centre will cost up to thrice as much and require about the same number of sessions, Dr Djeng said.