The first private-hospital based proton therapy center in Korea; status of the Proton Therapy Center at Samsung Medical Center

The purpose of this report is to describe the proton therapysystem at Samsung Medical Center (SMC-PTS) including the protonbeam generator, irradiation system, patient positioning system, patient position verification system, respiratory gating system, and operating and safety control system, and review the current status of the SMC-PTS.The SMC-PTS has a cyclotron (230 MeV) and two treatment rooms: one treatment room is equipped with a multi-purpose nozzle and the other treatment room is equipped with a dedicated pencil beam scanningnozzle. The protonbeam generator including the cyclotron and the energy selection system can lower the energy of protonsdown to 70 MeV from the maximum 230 MeV.The multi-purpose nozzle can deliver both wobbling protonbeam and active scanning protonbeam, and a multi-leaf collimator has been installed in the downstream of the nozzle. The dedicated scanning nozzle can deliver active scanning protonbeam with a helium gas filled pipe minimizing unnecessary interactions with the air in the beam path. The equipment was provided by Sumitomo Heavy IndustriesLtd., RayStation from RaySearch Laboratories AB is the selected treatment planning system, and data management will be handled by the MOSAIQ system from Elekta AB.The SMC-PTS located in Seoul, Korea, is scheduled to begin treating cancer patients in 2015.