Florida Leaders Tour Speros and Tampa Bay’s First Proton Therapy Center
Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Wilton Simpson and Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Chief of Staff Jason Weida recently visited Moffitt Cancer Center’s Speros campus for an exclusive look inside the Moffitt Speros Outpatient Center. The center is home to one of the most advanced proton therapy systems in the world and the first in the Tampa Bay area.
Joined by Patrick Hwu, MD, president and CEO of Moffitt; Josh Carpenter, DPhil, president of Speros; Jamie Wilson, Moffitt vice president of Government Relations; and Tim Adams, Moffitt board chair; they toured the state-of-the-art Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation Proton Center. They watched a live demonstration of the proton system’s massive rotating gantry.
Weighing over 100 tons, the gantry enables the rotation of the proton beam, allowing clinicians to treat tumors from multiple angles with extreme precision while improving patient comfort and minimizing damage to surrounding healthy tissue.
“Moffitt’s proton therapy system is the best in the world,” Hwu said. “With this system, we’re giving patients access to one of the most precise cancer treatments available. We’re proud to lead the region into a new era of cancer care where precision and power save lives.”
Accurate to Width of Human Hair
The visit highlights the powerful capabilities of the ProteusONE system by IBA, the most precise proton therapy system available. With thousands of patients successfully treated globally, the system was designed to treat complex and hard-to-reach tumors.
Moffitt’s proton therapy system delivers high-dose radiation to cancer cells with a margin of error of less than 1 millimeter (about the width of a human hair), sparing nearby organs and preserving healthy tissue. The accuracy of the ProteusONE offers the best patient outcomes with fewer long-term side effects.
“We’re proud to show our state leaders how this technology and this campus are delivering on our promise to save more lives in Florida and beyond,” Carpenter said. “We are not just imagining a world without cancer at Speros, we are building the infrastructure to make it real. We’re creating space for the next century of cancer research and biotech innovation.”
Unlocking Future Research
Moffitt’s proton therapy system also offers the potential of unlocking next-generation research studies. Using the ProteusONE, Moffitt scientists will explore how this advanced technology could stimulate the immune system to help the body fight cancer.
Proton therapy targets tumors precisely, which minimizes damage and inflammation to healthy tissue and helps preserve the body’s immune defenses. While the high-energy protons damage tumor cells, they can release tumor-associated antigens. These are signals that help alert and activate immune cells, like dendritic cells and T cells. This immune activation may play a critical role in recognizing and attacking cancer cells elsewhere in the body, even beyond the initial treatment site.
Moffitt researchers will explore this emerging intersection of proton therapy and immunotherapy. This research could lead to new, less toxic and more effective treatment strategies that harness the full power of the immune system to eliminate cancer and prevent it from returning.
Openings Set for 2026
Once fully operational, Speros is projected to create more than 11,000 jobs and generate over $2.5 billion in economic impact. The 775-acre campus is home to the Moffitt Speros Outpatient Center, which will open in January 2026 and serve as the cornerstone of the research park. The Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation Proton Center will open in spring 2026, with the Moffitt Discovery and Innovation Center for research opening in the fall.
