Rinecker Proton Therapy Center

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The Rinecker Proton Therapy Center (RPTC) in Munich is a clinical facility that uses proton therapy to irradiate malignant tumors in all parts of the body. After completion of the therapies that had already started at the end of 2019, operations will be discontinued.

Exterior view of the RPTC in Munich

history

The operating company ProHealth AG was founded by Hans Rinecker in May 1999. This set up the proton irradiation center in Munich with an investment volume of 170 million euros.

The RPTC in Munich was the first facility in Europe that was not built for research purposes, but was founded primarily to treat cancer patients. In cooperation with the Surgical Clinic Dr. Rinecker in Munich, proton cancer therapy has been included in the hospital planning of the Free State of Bavaria.

The first therapy place was put into operation in March 2009; when fully expanded, there were four therapy places. This could treat up to 4000 patients annually. In fact, significantly fewer patients were treated because only some of the statutory health insurances and private health insurances cover the high treatment costs (over € 20,000) in whole or in part. According to the insolvency administrator, the number of patients that was originally planned for each year was not achieved in the ten years of operation.

The operating company and the property company had to file for bankruptcy in 2017 due to insufficient capacity utilization. However, operations were initially continued by the insolvency administrators with the support of the technology and service partner for the proton facility, Varian Germany, and only stopped at the end of 2019.

Furnishing

The RPTC's particle accelerator is a superconducting cyclotron with a maximum energy of 250 MeV .

  • Four 360 ° beam aiming devices (gantries) with patient beds
  • A “fixed-beam” therapy station with a fixed beam aiming device for precision radiation in the eye and skull area
  • Two multidetector spiral whole-body computed tomographs, one of which is positron emission tomograph-CT (PET-CT)
  • Two 1.5 Tesla full-body magnetic resonance tomographs
  • Workplaces for angiography , sonography , endoscopy and for screening and cytostatic interference laboratory tests
  • Anesthesia department and a wake-up station (for children and lung tumor radiation)
  • Several workplaces for therapy planning and individual medical adaptation of the radiation protocols

There is also an interdisciplinary tumor board. This consistently consists of radiation therapists, radiologists, internal oncologists, pathologists and surgeons. Depending on the type of illness, appropriate specialists are also called in.

technology

The RPTC uses Voxel-to-voxel Modulated Scanning Proton Therapy (VVM-SPT), which is also used at the Heidelberg Ion Beam Therapy Center , the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland and the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. The terms “pencil beam scanning” (PBS), “spot scanning” technique and “beam scanning” are also used synonymously . The target beam is deflected laterally with large magnets so that it is swept two-dimensionally over the specified area. The third dimension is determined by the depth of penetration, which can be influenced by adjusting the proton beam energy.

Older systems work with the so-called scattering method, in which individually made stencils and scatter films are used, which have to be adjusted manually for each irradiation. In addition, undesirable dose supernatants arise.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Economic data of ProHealth AG
  2. ↑ Hospital plan of the Free State of Bavaria , as of January 1, 2013.
  3. ^ Alfred Haidenberger: With protons against cancer. Retrieved February 3, 2013 .
  4. ↑ a b Stephan Handel: Experiment failed. Süddeutsche Zeitung, November 1, 2019
  5. ↑ Stephan Handel: The high-tech clinic is running out of money . In: sueddeutsche.de . October 14, 2017, ISSN  0174-4917 ( sueddeutsche.de [accessed October 16, 2017]).
  6. ↑ Michael Jaffé: Great investor interest in the Munich proton therapy center. Retrieved December 1, 2017 .
  7. ^ Rinecker Proton Therapy Center: Equipment
  8. ↑ H. Rinecker: Proton Therapy - New Chance in Cancer, FA Herbig Verlagsbuchhandlung, Munich, 2005, pp. 59–61.

Coordinates: 48 ° 6 ′ 18.8 ″  N , 11 ° 33 ′ 0 ″  E