FLINT TOWNSHIP -- The doors will open soon to a "state of the art" cancer treatment center in Genesee County. Construction is nearly complete at the McLaren Cancer Medical Center’s Proton Therapy Center on Beecher Road.
It is one of only thirty five such facilities in the world and the only one in Michigan.
“We are very excited to be able to provide this technology,” says McLaren oncologist Dr. Hesham Gayar. “To deliver proton beam therapy, you need more than just a machine in a room. It is a large building with several rooms to be able to produce, speed up the proton and deliver it accurately.”
Medical experts say current radiation treatments can have side effects which can be long term and/or potentially leading to secondary malignancy.
Proton Therapy, says Dr. Gayar, “focuses….about at least 60% less radiation to the normal tissue than x-ray therapy.”
Dr. Gayar calls it “A life saving tool. A quality of life saving tool.”
