$25 Million Cyclotron Brings New Cancer Treatment to AL
A 90-ton cyclotron arrived Tuesday on the campus of UAB. The machine will be part of a new proton therapy center, bringing a specialized cancer treatment to Alabama.
A crowd gathered Tuesday to witness a crane lift the giant cyclotron and slowly lower it through a hole in the roof of a building. That building, called the UAB Proton Center, was built specifically to house the machine.
Dr. James Bonner, chairman of radiation oncology at UAB, watched from the street below.
“Well you can see it’s kind of a glob of metal right now,” Bonner said of the new cyclotron. “So it’s been put together in a tight format so it can be shipped across the ocean.”
The cyclotron was built in Germany and took about a month to make its way to Birmingham. It costs around $25 million. The device is owned by a company called Proton International, but UAB clinical staff will be in charge of operating it. Once it is up and running, the cyclotron will spin protons really fast and generate a beam of energy to target cancerous tumors. Bonner says this is the first time this kind of treatment will be available in Alabama.
“I don’t think it’s worth the investment to have one of these on every street corner,” Bonner says. “This is a type of radiation that’s very specific for certain types of tumors.”
He says the cyclotron is more precise than traditional radiation, so it doesn’t damage surrounding tissue. That is better for treating kids or targeting tumors at the base of the skull. Bonner says UAB hopes to treat its first patient with the machine in January of next year.
More than 100,000 pounds of ground beef are recalled for possibly having E. coli
The Minnesota Department of Agriculture alerted federal authorities about several illnesses in the past week.
President-elect set to shape ‘Trump judiciary’ for next generation
Legal experts predict President-elect Donald Trump will move quickly next year to cement and extend his legacy in appointing federal judges.
Mama Stamberg’s relish faces its toughest critics: NPR staffers
Susan Stamberg returns with her annual love letter to the pink pile of Thanksgiving mush known as Mama Stamberg's Cranberry Relish.
Tesla won the plug war. Enter the age of the EV charging adapter
The auto industry is embracing Tesla's charging technology in order to share its vast Supercharger network. This is going to be a slow transition — expect to see a lot of adapters.
In this election, demographics did not determine how people voted
Groups that Democrats believed would always turn out in their favor did not do so this year. Here's how the vote shook out in the seven swing states.
In ‘Wicked: Part I’, Cynthia Erivo defies gravity — and convention — as Elphaba
Cynthia Erivo says being different had "something to do with" her role as Elphaba in 'Wicked: Part 1.'
