A 71-ton particle accelerator has been lifted into the new buildings in the coming National Centre for Particle Therapy at Skejby. From 2018, the national centre will provide highly specialised radiation therapy for cancer patients throughout Denmark.

2017.06.15 | Anne Westh, AUH

The particle accelerator is now in place at Skejby. Photo: Michael Harder, AUH

Two large blue containers with a big present for Danish cancer patients arrived during the night between Thursday and Friday at the radio therapy construction site at Aarhus University Hospital. After a long journey from the manufacturer VARIAN's factory in Troisdorf in south-west Germany, the particle accelerator – which is also known as a cyclotron – was lifted into place behind the thick concrete walls in Skejby. 

"The particle accelerator is the very heart of the National Centre for Particle Radiotherapy, because it generates the particles that the patients at the centre are treated with," says Professor Morten Høyer from the Department of Clinical Medicine, who is head consultant at the National Centre for Particle Radiotherapy.

Particle therapy is a more gentle form of radiation therapy for cancer patients. It has particular potential in the treatment of children and adults with tumours in particularly exposed places such as the brain or close to the spinal column.

However, it will take more than a year before the first patient will receive particle radiotherapy in Aarhus in October 2018.

"The coming time will be used to install and ready the accelerator so the equipment is fully optimised before we begin treating patients," says Morten Høyer.

Fakta om Dansk Center for Partikelterapi

• The National Centre for Particle Radiotherapy will be a national centre providing highly specialised radiation therapy for cancer patients and is currently under construction at Aarhus University Hospital in Skejby. The centre is scheduled to receive its first patient in October 2018. When fully operational the centre will have a capacity of approximately 30,000 treatments per year, corresponding to approx. 1,200 patients.
• The 9,500 square metre centre is being established in a close collaboration between Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus University and the Central Denmark Region.
• Establishing the centre will cost approximately DKK 800 million, with DKK 280 million of this covering the equipment itself. The Moller Foundation has donated DKK 250 million towards the purchase of the particle accelerator.
• Visit the project website for more information www.particle radiotherapy.dk

Contact:

Head Consultant, Professor Morten Høyer
National Centre for Particle Radiotherapy and the Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University 
E-mail: morten.hoyer@oncology.au.dk
Mobile: (+45) 2328 2823