Second proton therapy center to open in 2021
Central Florida is one step closer to having two centers that offer proton therapy, an advanced form of radiation therapy for cancer treatment.
Since January, the Tennessee-based company Provision Healthcare has been building a structure in West Orange County to house a cyclotron, a 220-ton piece of equipment that generates the proton beam that’s used to kill cancer cells and is the heart of a proton therapy center.
On Wednesday, after crossing the waters from Japan and traveling from Cape Canaveral to Orlando, the 110-ton piece arrived on the back of a long flatbed truck at its new home in Hamlin, the centerpiece of Horizon West, one of the fastest-growing communities in the United States.
“That’s our big excitement. That’s a milestone in the project,” said Mary Lou DuBois, president of Provision Solutions.
Provision has big plans for its 17-acre campus. Once complete, Provision CARES Proton Therapy Orlando will be a freestanding comprehensive cancer center with three medical office buildings and a range of cancer therapies, including medical and radiation oncology and services such as imaging.
The company also has plans for a second center in Central Florida, currently scouting a location in Lake Nona.
Provision was first planning to establish a center at UCF Lake Nona Cancer Center — the former Sanford Burnham building that is now part of UCF — but then decided against it.
“It would probably cost more to refurbish that than build a new building,” said Terry Douglass, executive chairman of Provision Healthcare.
Once complete, the Provision campus in Horizon West will be the first free-standing cancer treatment center in