2024-10-27 09:53:00
Public health warms up the engines and prepares the way arrival of proton therapy to treat tumors. According to experts and scientific evidence, this is a more precise therapy, less invasivewhich reduces side effects and improves the patient’s quality of life, although the reluctance comes from the high cost, around 50 million to start each unit. Three years ago, the donation by the Amancio Ortega Foundation of 280 million euros was announced for the purchase of 10 proton machines which will be installed in as many hospitals in the public network.
In Spain, at the moment, in two private centers only patients who come from other hospitals are treated with protons: Quirón Clinic, in Barcelonaand the structures of University of Navarra, in Madrid. The centers that benefit from this donation are the Hospital Complex of Donostiathe old Gil Casares hospital next to the University Clinic of Santiago de Compostelathe Military Hospital of Seville and the Maternal and the Child Rum raisinthe Faith of ValenciaDoctor Negrín by Gran Canariaand inside Madrid La Paz and Fuenlabrada. Furthermore, two of these teams are destined for the Parc Sanitari Pere Virgili in Barcelona.
Before the Amancio Ortega Foundation announced this donation, proton therapy was already being adopted in public health in Cantabria, at the Marqués de Valdecilla University Hospital. The head of the Radiotherapy Oncology service of this center and promoter of the Cantabria project, Pedro Prada, defends, in an interview with EFE, the benefits of this therapy for patients.
A “powerful weapon” against cancer
Proton therapy, he explains, involves a powerful weapon in the fight against cancer. And this is because it allows the irradiation of healthy tissues to be reduced as much as possible. “With proton therapy in many places it is possible to heal more and have fewer complications. That is why they have now become popular, because there is scientific evidence that better healing results are achieved by treating in a less invasive, less harmful way and with fewer side effects . effect”, he underlines.
Furthermore, the indications for this therapy are broad pediatric tumorsthose housed in the nervous system, in lung, some breasts or sarcomas. In the map that proton therapy will have in the public health network in the near future, it will not be trivial for Prada to be the first hospital to have this machine in operation, but it could bring great advantages in terms of opportunities.
The Cantabrian project is about to begin great job on the bunker which will host the proton machine, which hopes to treat the first patients at the end of 2026 or early 2027. The Cantabrian councilor, César Pascual, also emphasizes that the proton therapy planned in his community can “make a difference” and that it IS also a project that goes beyond assistance, because it will allow “much more innovation and teaching”. The other facilities are progressing through a complex administrative and contractual process and, for example, at the end of June Osakidetza awarded the construction of the building that will house proton therapy in the Donostia hospital complex.
Him Santiago de Compostela project It is also one of the most advanced, with plans to start in 2026. Criticism and reluctance to install these equipment in public healthcare are motivated by their high cost. In fact, the Cantabria team is the only one financed 100% with public funds, since the Amancio Ortega Foundation is responsible for the remaining ten teams. Pedro Prada recognizes that the outlay is important, but underlines that before settling in private clinics it was even higher and was around 300 million euros
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