Penn Medicine breaks ground on fourth proton therapy center

PHILADELPHIA – Today, Penn Medicine celebrated the groundbreaking of the Roberts Proton Therapy Center at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center in University City, which is expected to open for patient care in late 2027. The state-of-the-art, $224 million center will be Penn Medicine’s fourth proton therapy location, bolstering the organization’s system-wide approach to comprehensive cancer care. Proton therapy is an advanced form of radiation therapy used to treat many types of cancer by targeting tumors with pinpoint precision that protects surrounding, healthy tissue, thereby limiting side effects and preserving quality of life.  

The new center is intended to expand the cancer care capabilities of Penn Medicine’s Abramson Cancer Center, and to build capacity in preparation for a planned update of the Roberts Proton Therapy Center at the Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine, the largest and busiest center in the world for proton therapy, where nearly 11,000 adult and pediatric patients have been treated since it opened in 2010.

“Penn Medicine is an international leader in proton therapy treatment, research, and education, and this new proton therapy center will help ensure seamless patient care as we proactively plan for upgrading our flagship center at the Perelman Center,” said James Metz, MD, chair of Radiation Oncology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Upgrades to the Roberts Proton Therapy Center at the Perelman Center will begin several months after the center at Penn Presbyterian opens.

Expanding radiation therapy in University City

The new center will include two state-of-the-art Proteus^®ONE proton therapy systems and involve a 43,000 square foot expansion, extending the footprint of Penn Presbyterian toward 38^th Street. Medical Drive is currently closed while construction is ongoing. Patients and visitors should use Filbert Street to access Penn Presbyterian’s parking garage and main entrance in the Cupp Building. Updates to construction impacts on wayfinding will be posted on the Presbyterian webpage for patient and visitor information.

In addition to the two proton therapy systems, the project will add another treatment room for photon therapy, which uses high-energy X-ray beams, and is the most frequent form of radiotherapy in cancer treatment. The TrueBeam^® photon therapy system will be up and running by fall 2025, doubling the capacity for photon therapy at Penn Presbyterian.  

“We create a personalized radiation therapy plan for every patient, based on their specific cancer type and tumor location,” said John Plastaras, MD, PhD, chief of Radiation Oncology and Proton Therapy at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center. “This new center will allow us to fully serve patients with the most advanced radiation therapy treatment options in both proton and photon therapy.”   

Through a partnership with Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), specialty-trained pediatric radiation oncologists treat children at the Roberts Proton Therapy Center in the Perelman Center, and this partnership will extend to the new location at Penn Presbyterian as well.

Leading the world in proton therapy

While there are fewer than 50 proton therapy centers in the United States, patients in and around the Delaware Valley benefit from convenient access to expert proton therapy care. In addition to the Roberts Proton Therapy Center at the Perelman Center, proton therapy is also available at the Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health Ann B. Barshinger Cancer Institute and the Penn Medicine | Virtua Health Proton Therapy Center in South Jersey.

Penn Medicine uses a hub-and-spoke model where centralized experts—highly trained and experienced physicists and dosimetrists at the Perelman Center—create treatment plans for every patient receiving proton therapy and send those plans to the radiation oncologists administering treatment. This model allowed Penn’s proton therapy centers in Lancaster and South Jersey to get up and running quickly and will be implemented at Penn Presbyterian as well.

The new center will also allow Penn Medicine to expand proton therapy research activity and educational offerings. Penn Medicine proton therapy experts have trained staff from 27 proton therapy centers across the world over the last 15 years and led groundbreaking research to deliver proton therapy even more safely and precisely. Penn Medicine experts continue to lead large-scale clinical trials aimed at determining whether proton therapy offers better outcomes than conventional photon therapy for different types of cancer. For example, the ongoing Radiotherapy Comparative Effectiveness (RadComp) trial is the largest clinical trial to date to compare proton and photon therapy for patients with locally advanced breast cancer. And Penn experts are leading the way in developing FLASH radiotherapy, a new strategy that could use proton or photon therapy to treat tumors with an ultra-high dose of radiation in less than a second.

Learn more about proton therapy at Penn Medicine: The Power of Protons.

Penn Medicine is one of the world’s leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, excellence in patient care, and community service. The organization consists of the University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS) and Penn’s Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine, founded in 1765 as the nation’s first medical school.

The Perelman School of Medicine is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $580 million awarded in the 2023 fiscal year. Home to a proud history of “firsts,” Penn Medicine teams have pioneered discoveries that have shaped modern medicine, including CAR T cell therapy for cancer and the Nobel Prize-winning mRNA technology used in COVID-19 vaccines.

The University of Pennsylvania Health System cares for patients in facilities and their homes stretching from the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania to the New Jersey shore. UPHS facilities include the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, Chester County Hospital, Doylestown Health, Lancaster General Health, Princeton Health, and Pennsylvania Hospital—the nation’s first hospital, chartered in 1751. Additional facilities and enterprises include Penn Medicine at Home, GSPP Rehabilitation, Lancaster Behavioral Health Hospital, and Princeton House Behavioral Health, among others.

Penn Medicine is an $11.9 billion enterprise powered by nearly 49,000 talented faculty and staff.