Moffitt Celebrates Proton Therapy Unit Milestone at Speros
Moffitt Cancer Center marked a crucial milestone at its growing Speros FL campus with a topping out event of its proton therapy unit. The building at the Pasco Campus will house the ProteusONE machine, commissioned by IBA, which will arrive next year to offer cancer patients precision proton therapy that minimizes radiation exposure to healthy surrounding tissue.
Speros has been under construction for the past two years and will offer an innovative life sciences campus on 775 acres. The Moffitt Ambulatory Clinic is expected to open first in January 2026, followed by the proton therapy unit in mid-2026.
“This topping out marks a monumental part of this project,” said John Allgeier, vice president of Real Estate Development and Operations at Speros. “We’ve been building roads and infrastructure for some time and our research building and clinic. This proton therapy unit is a game changer when it comes to fighting cancer.”
The new proton therapy at Speros is a step above what is already in existence at other medical facilities, according to Kosj Yamoah, MD, chair of Moffitt’s Radiation Oncology Department. The technique minimizes radiation exposure to healthy surrounding tissues, potentially leading to fewer side effects than traditional radiotherapy.
Yamoah calls the IBA technology “top of the line” and says it “leap-frogged the technology by several decades.”
“Protons are positively charged and have a stopping property,” Yamoah said. “So, it is harnessed for a specific position and creates a sharper edge. That’s the benefit of using proton therapy over traditional radiotherapy that uses electrons, for example. What we are bringing in is the most technologically advanced form of providing proton therapy that is on the market right now.”
At Speros, eligible patients could also receive flash proton therapy, which not only helps doctors treat cancer, but can be used in clinical trials to continue to advance that treatment.
“Flash is exactly what it sounds like,” Yamoah said. “It gives a whopping dose of radiotherapy in a split second and makes it more precise and has less effect on the healthy tissue. We think it will activate immune cells and this brings immunotherapy and radiotherapy together.”
This unit will also be open to treat select pediatric cancer patients, which is a patient population Moffitt doesn’t traditionally serve. Moffitt is offering proton therapy to some younger patients because from a scientific therapy perspective, proton therapy is favored for children over adults.
“An example would be a child who needs treatment at the base of their skull or near the spinal cord,” Yamoah said. “You realize that using protons will protect normal brain tissue, and every little bit we can save of that healthy tissue will benefit a patient who has another 60 to 70 years ahead of them. It just makes sense.”
Early pediatric cases will involve patients who do not need anesthesia. When a second proton therapy unit opens, however, it will be able to treat those who will require anesthesia.
The proton therapy unit is expected to open in mid-2026.
So, who is eligible for this therapy? Yamoah said that like with all patients, proton therapy is personalized and may not be suitable for every single patient.
“When you come to Moffitt, you come to a place where experts use a multidisciplinary approach to treat individuals with a specific cancer,” Yamoah said. “Every disease site in the body has a use for protons. Head and neck cancers, brain cancers, cancers on the spine – those types of cancers will likely utilize proton therapy. Anything that is close to the heart, cancer in the left breast, for example, would also be a candidate for this therapy.”
But someone who has a cancer that moves when they breathe, for example, would be better suited for treatment with the MRI Linac, which is used specifically for those types of internal cancers.
“We don’t have MRI-guided proton therapy yet,” Yamoah said. “So, if there is a patient with a tumor that has motion, we’ll use the MRI Linac that will be available at the Moffitt clinic right there at Speros or on our Magnolia campus.”
“The bottom line is each patient gets what is best for their individual care. Proton therapy is one of the premier tools that is available for those who need it.”
