Maryland Proton Treatment Center Celebrates Grand Opening

June 1, 2016

The Maryland Proton Treatment Center celebrated the grand opening of its new $200 million, 110,000-square-foot facility in West Baltimore on June 1, 2016. More than 600 people – faculty members, staff, elected officials, community doctors and cancer survivors – attended the event. June 1 is National Cancer Survivors Day, and the event, which had a ‘Survivor’ theme, based on the reality TV show, also honored cancer survivors. The new facility is the first proton treatment center in the Baltimore-Washington area.

Speakers included :

• 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)
• E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, Dean, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Vice President for Medical Affairs, University of Maryland, and the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor.
• Rep. Elijah Cummings
• Robert Chrencik, MBA, President and CEO, University of Maryland Medical System
• Dr. Bruce Jarrell, MD, Chief Academic and Research Officer, University of Maryland, Baltimore; and
• State Sen. Catherine Pugh, Board Member, University of Maryland Medical System

“This is an incredibly exciting and historic moment for this institution, our state, and the many cancer patients who will seek care inside this new building,” said Dean Reece. “A little more than four years ago, we were gathered across the street to commemorate the official groundbreaking for this project. Behind the scenes, however, the Department of Radiation Oncology has been working tirelessly for more than a decade to bring this center to fruition.” The event took place in an outdoor tent next to the facility. The inside of the tent looked like a “Survivor” location, with distressed wood furniture, live tropical trees and plants, pier pilings, wooden crates, vintage oak barrels, and heavy ship rope. In the center of the tent there was a 15 foot tall hand carved “Tree of Life.”

Watch the video of the MPTC grand opening below: