Singapore aims to improve cancer wellness with a $100 million giant machine that zaps tumours with subatomic particles. Measure about half the size of a football field, the proton therapy device will be the first of its kind in the region, and South-east Asia’s most expensive medical machine.
According to the National Cancer Centre Singapore, the device will help to improve the wellbeing of children with cancer and patients with tumours in hard-to-reach areas such as the brain, spinal cord and eye. Proton therapy works by destroying cancer cells with beams of positively charged subatomic particles, unlike the X-rays that are currently used in conventional radiation treatment. Whilst avoiding healthy tissue, the machine delivers high doses of radiation accurately to the tumour.
The non-invasive and painless treatment comes with fewer short- and long-term side effects than with X-ray therapy, and is performed on an outpatient basis. If you were to qualify for a government subsidy, you could expect to pay about $13,000 for six weeks of 15- to 30-minute sessions. This is the same cost as a currently available form of treatment, known as image-guided radiotherapy. According to centre director Professor Soo Khee Chee, the new treatment will be able to be used on 1,000 people per year, and approximately 15% of the centre’s current 5,000 radiotherapy patients could be suitable for the treatment.
Though proton therapy is especially beneficial for children, as it greatly reduces their risk of developing a second bout of cancer and other side effects such as growth and mental retardation, the treatment is also useful for treating liver cancer, which is the fourth most common form of the disease among Singaporean men. However, that is not to say that the machine will render other forms of cancer therapy obsolete. Where high doses of radiation are unnecessary, for instance, X-ray therapy will continue to be used.
Scheduled for completion in 2017, Singapore’s proton therapy facility will be located at the cancer centre’s new building at the Outram Campus. Worldwide, there are currently 39 such facilities, including locations in Japan, South Korea and the United states. The cancer centre, a non-profit organisation, is currently raising funds for the project, which, when complete, will be available to patients who are deemed suitable for proton treatment by a committee of specialist. Prof Soo noted, ‘This is a major milestone for Singapore as proton beam therapy is the cutting edge in radiation treatment.’
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