Mayo Clinic, Hitachi to build first, next generation, carbon ion therapy treatment facility in North America

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.

While carbon ion therapy was discovered in the United States in the 1970s, there currently are no carbon ion therapy treatment centers in North America. The technology is only available at a handful of centers in Asia and Europe.

"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 Dr Gianrico Farrugia, 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."

"Making new and innovative treatments available to patients with serious or complex health care needs is part of our DNA at Mayo Clinic," says Dr Kent Thielen, CEO of Mayo Clinic in Florida. "We are proud to build on our long-standing relationship with Hitachi to make carbon ion therapy available to patients who will benefit from this technology."

Dr Steven Buskirk, chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Mayo Clinic in Florida, says," the availability of carbon ion technology will allow Mayo Clinic researchers to evaluate the efficacy of carbon ion therapy for the treatment of various cancer types including exploration into new and expanded therapies, including multi-modality treatment options."

Keiji Kojima, executive vice president and executive officer at Hitachi Ltd, says, "I am extremely honored to introduce North America's first carbon ion facility at Mayo Clinic in Florida. Hitachi has several carbon facilities in Japan already treating patients and plans for installation of two more facilities in Asia. We are confident through our carbon experience, digital technology and the existing partnership with Mayo Clinic that we will continue to contribute to cancer treatment and increase our customer's social value in the United States and across the globe. We look forward to enhancing our continued partnership with Mayo Clinic."

"Carbon ion therapy belongs to a family of particle therapies which include protons, helium and other ions. Carbon ion therapy has the capability of killing cancer cells which are resistant to traditional radiation therapy. This capability combined with the ability to precisely deposit this treatment into the resistant tumor while minimizing the dose to adjacent normal tissue make it ideal to treat cancerous tumors in sensitive parts of the body," says Dr Nadia Laack, Chair of the Department of Radiology Oncology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota. Dr Laack says Mayo Clinic radiation oncologists and physicists have been studying carbon ion treatment in Asia and Europe for nearly a decade and have already developed a high level of expertise in treatment planning and delivery.

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