Dr. William F. Regine is Awarded 2016 Entrepreneur of the Year From the University of Maryland, Baltimore

Years of Work Came To Fruition with Opening of Maryland Proton Treatment Center

William F. Regine, MD, FACR, FACRO, the Isadore & Fannie Schneider Foxman Endowed Chair and Professor in Radiation Oncology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UM SOM) and Executive Director of the Maryland Proton Treatment Center (MPTC) has been awarded the 2016 Entrepreneur of the Year from the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB).

Dr. Regine has been a crucial driving force behind the $200 million MPTC, which began treating patients in February.

"The vision we set was a tall order in wanting to make MPTC both a center of proton therapy excellence across all academic missions and a regional resource for health care providers in the area," says Dr. Regine.

"We have managed to attract outstanding faculty who are already doing cutting-edge research in proton therapy and have also managed to bring on two affiliate partners, Georgetown University and WellSpan Health [based in York, Pa.], making proton therapy accessible to their patients within the first six months of opening. We expect to bring other health care partners along in the next six months, including physician practices from northern Virginia."

Dr. Regine began 10 years ago by visiting the few other proton treatment centers around the country. He developed a partnership with Maryland Proton Treatment Holdings to successfully raise funding; engaged Varian Medical Systems of Palo Alto, Calif., the world leader in radiation oncology technology, to provide the most advanced form of proton therapy; and enabled the School of Medicine's Department of Radiation Oncology (University of Maryland Radiation Oncology Associates P.A.) to lead the project in providing the center’s vision, as well as professional and clinical management services. He integrated MPTC with the UM Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center and UM Medical Center/System, locating the center within the BioPark at UMB.

Dr. Regine already is looking ahead. He says that within a decade MPTC will become a world leader in bringing and defining the best use of proton therapy in the care of cancer patients.

He is also the co-inventor of the GammaPod, the first radiation treatment system in the world completely dedicated to early-stage breast cancer. Dr. Regine is confident it will allow patients in the near future to be able to have their breast cancer treated in one to three outpatient treatment sessions of less than 30 minutes without ever needing breast surgery.

As a department chair, principal investigator of four National Cancer Institute clinical trials, inventor, research author, and editor of textbooks like “Principles and Practices of Stereotactic Radiosurgery,” Dr. Regine has made an enormous impact in many areas.

“Dr. Regine is a relentless and dynamic leader in radiation oncology,” said UM SOM Dean E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, who is also vice president for medical affairs at the University of Maryland and the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor. “He has spent countless hours on this enormous project, and without his visionary leadership, it would not have succeeded. He richly deserves this honor.”

Dr. Regine praises the support of Dean Reece as well as UMMS leadership, including Robert Chrencik, MBA, President and CEO, University of Maryland Medical System.

James L. Hughes, MBA, chief enterprise and economic development officer and vice president at UMB and head of UM Ventures, says Dr. Regine has created a state-of-the art center that will save lives while producing revenue.

"MPTC is creating 175 local jobs and it is also bringing patients from around the world to Baltimore for up to eight weeks of treatment," Hughes says. "It’s an amazing win-win for the University and the public it serves. Dr. Regine should be justifiably proud."

The 110,000-square-foot center, which houses a 90-ton cyclotron, is the first in the Eastern U.S. to offer image-guided intensity-modulated proton therapy (IMPT) – the most advanced and precise form of radiation therapy – fully integrated throughout the center.

Unlike traditional radiation therapy, the radiation dose in proton therapy stops at the tumor site, reducing radiation dose exposure to surrounding healthy tissue, thereby reducing side effects and preventing damage to critical organs such as the heart, lungs, brain, spinal cord, liver, intestine, bladder or rectum.  MPTC delivers the most precise form of proton therapy using a highly advanced technology called pencil beam scanning. With this technology, a proton beam precisely paints a tumor with radiation, using a pencil point beam that deposits dose layer by layer as it scans back and forth across the target area.

Proton therapy has been shown to be effective in treating a wide range of localized tumors in the brain, base of the skull, head and neck area, eye, esophagus, lung, liver, breast, spinal cord and gastrointestinal tract. It is also an important treatment option for children with cancer. Nearly 60 percent of cancer patients receive a course of radiation as part of their treatment plan, and traditional radiation is still an excellent option for most. However, of those patients, as many as 30 percent may benefit from proton therapy, according to Dr. Regine.

MPTC also offers free concierge services to ensure a seamless patient experience and a successful reconnection back to their referring physician. One of the center’s goals is to remain cost-neutral to insurance providers, meaning patients will pay the same for proton treatment as they would for other intensity-modulated treatments at the University of Maryland.

Proton treatment can take anywhere from one session up to eight weeks, depending on the tumor. Each appointment lasts less than an hour but the actual time it takes to deliver the proton beam is only minutes. Patients can receive proton therapy in conjunction with other cancer treatment modalities such as surgery or chemotherapy.

Clinical research will also be a key priority of the new center, which will offer a robust clinical trial program – called the Maryland Proton Alliance – to all its patients to further evidence-based medicine.

About the University of Maryland School of Medicine

The University of Maryland School of Medicine was chartered in 1807 and is the first public medical school in the United States and continues today as an innovative leader in accelerating innovation and discovery in medicine. The School of Medicine is the founding school of the University of Maryland and is an integral part of the 11-campus University System of Maryland. Located on the University of Maryland’s Baltimore campus, the School of Medicine works closely with the University of Maryland Medical Center and Medical System to provide a research-intensive, academic and clinically based education. With 43 academic departments, centers and institutes and a faculty of more than 3,000 physicians and research scientists plus more than $400 million in extramural funding, the School is regarded as one of the leading biomedical research institutions in the U.S. with top-tier faculty and programs in cancer, brain science, surgery and transplantation, trauma and emergency medicine, vaccine development and human genomics, among other centers of excellence. The School is not only concerned with the health of the citizens of Maryland and the nation, but also has a global presence, with research and treatment facilities in more than 35 countries around the world. http://medschool.umaryland.edu/

About the Maryland Proton Treatment Center

The Maryland Proton Treatment Center offers proton therapy – a highly advanced and precise form of radiation therapy that can increase radiation dose to tumor while decreasing dose to healthy, surrounding tissue – to the Baltimore/Washington region and beyond. It is a highly effective treatment for a wide range of localized tumors such as those found in the brain, base of the skull, head and neck area, eye tumors, tumors of the esophagus, lung, prostate, liver, breast, spinal cord, as well as gastrointestinal malignancies. It is also an important treatment option for children with cancer.

Learn More

• William F. Regine, MD, FACR, FACRO
• Maryland Proton Treatment Center (MPTC)