Loma Linda University to Dedicate Proton Treatment Center to Cancer Therapy Pioneer James M. Sl...( 'Father' of Proton Treatment Therapy...),Health

'Father' of Proton Treatment Therapy to be Honored Sunday, December 9, at

Unveiling of the Renamed James M. Slater, M.D., Proton Treatment and

Research Center

LOMA LINDA, Calif., Dec. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Loma Linda University Medical Center (LLUMC), the nation's first hospital to utilize proton beam therapy for cancer, will dedicate its internationally renowned Proton Treatment Center to founder and cancer therapy pioneer James M. Slater, M.D., FACR, vice chairman of the Department of Radiation Medicine and director of the Radiobiology Laboratories at LLUMC. The renaming and dedication event will take place Sunday, December 9, in a celebration that will include public tours of the nation's first hospital-based Proton Treatment Center, a dedication ceremony and a dinner for supporters of the center.

"The establishment of Loma Linda's Proton Treatment Center in 1990 was the result of 20 years of engineering, radiation and cancer therapy research by a visionary physician and leader, Dr. James M. Slater," said Mel Sauder, senior vice president, Loma Linda University Medical Center. "Dr. Slater not only pioneered the use of proton therapy for prostate, lung and brain cancers, but helped to organize and recruit physicists from high-energy physics laboratories around the world to form the Proton Therapy Co-Operative Group, which ultimately developed the design requirements for a hospital-based center."

LLUMC's Proton Treatment Center provides proton therapy to more patients worldwide than any other center of its kind, currently serving about 150 patients a day. Since its opening in 1990, the center has treated more than 12,000 patients and, until 2003, was the only cancer therapy facility of its kind in the United States.

Proton Therapy is a precise form of radiation treatment for cancer that utilizes targeted proton beams to minimize damage to healthy tissue and surrounding organs, and reduces radiation s
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