“Yes, you will be the first” in the region with a proton beam center, said Ezekiel Emanuel, an oncologist and bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine. “You may also be the first to close it, you may be the first to lose money on it. There are a lot of firsts here to be had.”
Radiation oncologists — the cancer doctors who use proton beam machines — have largely embraced them as a technological breakthrough that can deliver the tumor-fighting benefits of radiation with less harm to surrounding tissues.
But other medical experts say the rapid growth of the proton beam industry is emblematic of what’s wrong with the market-driven U.S. approach to health care.