Proton center marks 10 years in Oklahoma

Abstract: Oklahoma Proton Center is completing upgrades to software and equipment as it anticipates treating its 3,000th cancer patient this fall. However, not everyone within the medical community is sold on proton therapy, which has not been widely proven to be more successful than standard radiation that is much cheaper. “It’s controversial because it’s incredibly expensive, and there isn’t any evidence that it actually works for many of the ways it’s being used,” Shannon Brownlee, senior vice president at the Lown Institute, a Brookline-based health care think tank, told the Boston Globe this year.