Oklahoma Proton Center begins upgrades for the next decade of treatments.
It’s hard to believe, but the Oklahoma Proton Center was built nearly 10 years ago. Every decade or so, large scale maintenance is required to ensure the treatment machine functions with pinpoint accuracy. During the transition from Procure to the new Oklahoma Proton Center, we have taken this opportunity to do some of this basic maintenance and begin work on upgrades that will keep the Oklahoma Proton Center at the leading edge of Proton Therapy treatment.
The cyclotron, shown in the imaging, is the piece of equipment that generates the protons (a single positively charged particle) and then accelerates them to 2/3rds the speed of light. Once the protons are accelerated to about 125,000 miles per second, they exit the cyclotron and form the beam that is used to precisely target the cancer.