Proton therapy received a big boost in Germany with a decision enforcing a very strict radiation protection law which says that if two methods are available for treating a tumor, then the method using the least amount of radiation must be used.

“That gives a tremendous advantage to proton therapy,” said Dr. Markus Rinecker of the supervisory board of ProHealth (Munich), which operates the Rinecker Proton Therapy Center (RPTC), nearing operation in that city.

In all cases, he said, there is a sufficient patient base to justify the business model of 4,000-patient throughput annually. Rinecker said there are 200,000 Germans undergoing radiation therapy each year, “and that is only Germans.”

He said that the center receives inquiries from all countries of Europe and the U.S.

In addition to the RPTC in Munich, four other proton therapy centers are being built in Germany, creating a critical mass at the center of Europe’s population of 450 million.

A center in Heidelberg was expected to open in 2007 but is experiencing delays in commissioning. The cyclotron for the Essen proton therapy center is under construction.

Meanwhile, ProHealth plans two more RPTCs in Germany, one for Cologne, another near Leipzig.

— John Brosky, MDD