WALLINGFORD — A revolutionary cancer treatment made its way to Connecticut Thursday with the start of construction of a facility that will provide proton therapy to patients through a rare collaboration between rivals Hartford HealthCare and Yale New Haven Health Systems.
The Connecticut Proton Therapy Center will be 25,000 square-foot facility off Interstate 91 operated by Proton International.
Located at 932 Northrop Road, the center is the first of its kind in Connecticut and one of only three in New England with others in New York and Boston. There are 45 operating centers in the U.S. and 93 worldwide.
Proton therapy is a type of radiation therapy that uses a high energy beam of protons to irradiate cancer. Unlike traditional radiation therapy, the beam of energy is more highly targeted to one specific area, allowing for higher doses of radiation with limited side effects, especially outside the targeted treatment area.
It makes it useful for treatment against solid tumors in the body’s critical areas that may be dangerous for other forms of treatment, like tumors of the brain and central nervous system, eye, gastrointestinal tract, head and neck, liver, lung, prostate, spine, as well as some breast tumors, among others. It is also proven to be more effective for treating children, who are more vulnerable when it comes to traditional X-ray treatment.
The project serves as a critical joint collaboration between the two healthcare organizations, which are among the state’s largest, and have generally been in competition with one another in the past.
The collaboration was a natural pooling of resources for what couldn’t accomplish alone, and has been in the planning phase for around a decade, officials said.
“The opportunity to do this is important, because it would've been far more expensive and inefficient, and of lower quality had we done it individually, but collectively it will be world class from a research standpoint, teaching standpoint, access standpoint. So it's a wonderful example where really we are better together,” said Hartford Healthcare President Jeffrey Flaks. That pooling of resources into one center, he said, would give their staff access to the best equipment available.
It was a sentiment shared by Yale Health President Christopher O’Connor.
“With Hartford Healthcare's distribution and Yale New Haven's distribution, it really made sense to come together and put up a project that probably neither one of us would be able to justify alone. But yet the technology is so impactful that I think it's good to have here in the state and not make patients from this state travel to Boston or New York,” said O’Connor.
The central location in Wallingford, officials have said, is critical in allowing ease of access to everyone from across the state. Officials said that before it was prohibitive for many residents to seek treatment out of state, not only because of the travel expenses but with the uncertainty of being able to get treatment, given the wait to get into some facilities. They hoped that this facility would open the doors for those suffering with specific cancer diagnoses and allow them easier and cheaper care.
They also added that tapping into advanced treatment options like proton therapy would also burnish the state’s reputation in the medical field. Recently Connecticut was ranked as second in the country for overall access to healthcare, according to Forbes, and third in overall quality by US News and World Report.
The center costs $73 million to build and is anticipated to open sometime in December 2026. The groundbreaking was already delayed, as were most other projects in the medical industry, because of COVID with there still being lingering issues around staffing and overall cost that haven’t been finalized.
For patients, proton therapy can cost between $25,000 and $200,000, depending on the number of treatments and the patient's insurance plan.
Officials said Thursday that the center reflects how far the field of cancer treatment had come in the last two decades. Dr. Peter Yu, the physician-in-chief for Hartford Healthcare's Cancer Institute, said that since 2000 that the chances of surviving cancer treatment have increased from 50 percent to upwards of 75 percent and rising according to the National Cancer Institute. The Proton Therapy Center, he said, was another step toward increasing odds of survival
“To be able to deliver that today is equally exciting. There's no question that this is improving the health of all the people, the citizens, the patients who live in the state of Connecticut, and improving their health outcomes. But I think it's also remarkable because it's also improving the economic health of this state,” said Yu.
He added that by collaborating together on one concentrated facility would reduce the cost of treatment at the center.
“Often technology comes with a very, very high price tag. And that price tag is paid by patients in terms of their copays and deductibles,” Yu added. “So driving the cost of healthcare is a significant crisis for us, and for healthcare to be able to be good stewards of our resources is an important and purposeful effort. And so when Yale and Hartford came together, they said, you know, we don't want to overbuild capacity. We don't want to overbuild and drive the cost up. We want to be very, very thoughtful - and that means coming together and working together for better health and economic outcomes.”
The new center would be a boon for Wallingford, which has proven attractive to businesses due to its low electric rates compared to the rest of the state due to their municipal power company - which was one of the reasons the officials cited made the town an attractive prospect outside of its central location. It already is host to several prominent medical care facilities like Gaylord Hospital and Masonicare.
They couldn’t say how many jobs the new facility would generate yet, noting that it would be more firmly predicted closer to the opening date as the need for the facilities is evaluated. Still, many involved believe the facility is poised to be another major economic driver for the town.
“I'm thrilled. It's a tremendous asset to the town, and it's a tremendous asset to cancer treatment in the state of Connecticut. People from all over the state will be coming here to take advantage of the therapy that this proton therapy center will offer,” said Mayor Vincent Cervoni, who described the town as a crossroads of manufacturing and technology.
“This is one more contributing factor that really, because of our location, puts us on the world map and helps us help people stay healthy. So we are so grateful to have you here and everything that this treatment center represents for the Northeast Region and for healthcare throughout the state of Connecticut.”
Oct 24, 2024
Christian Metzger
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