Florida Times-Union
by Matt Soergel

It’s still a few years away, but Mayo Clinic plans to add a “promising” cancer treatment to its Jacksonville campus, the first of its kind in North America. The Mayo Clinic plans to build a carbon ion treatment facility to fight cancer at its Jacksonville campus, which Mayo says would be the first of its kind in North America. Carbon ion therapy has the potential to destroy cancer cells and tumors that are resistant to more traditional radiation therapy methods, without damaging surrounding tissue, said Steven Buskirk, chairman of Mayo’s radiation oncology department in Jacksonville. Carbon ions are 12 times the weight and size of proton ions and may be more effective for certain types of tumors, Buskirk said. “It seems to be a much more destructive type of beam,” he said.

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Context: Mayo Clinic and Hitachi, Ltd. have reached an agreement in principle to build a carbon ion treatment facility as part of Mayo Clinic's recently announced integrated oncology facility which will be constructed at Mayo Clinic's campus in Jacksonville, Florida.

"As a leading NCI-Designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, with locations in Florida, Minnesota and Arizona, Mayo Clinic is uniquely qualified to bring carbon ion therapy to the United States," says Gianrico Farrugia, M.D., president and CEO of Mayo Clinic. "Carbon ion therapy has tremendous potential as a tool for treating patients with challenging cancers that do not respond well to currently available therapies."

You can read more about carbon ion therapy here.

Contacts: Joe Dangor, Kevin Punsky, Tia Ford

Tags: Cancer, carbon ion therapy, Dr. Gianrico Farrugia, Dr. Kent Thielen, Dr. Steven Buskirk, Florida Times-Union, Uncategorized