Stanford Medicine has opened a new proton therapy facility – featuring an ultracompact treatment system that’s small enough to fit in a room the size of a conventional linear accelerator vault. Proton therapy is an advanced cancer treatment that offers precise tumour targeting while minimizing dose to healthy tissues. The technique is particularly beneficial for treating tumours located near critical structures and for treating cancers in children. Currently, however, access to proton therapy is limited by its high costs and substantial space requirements. The new treatment facility – opened earlier this week at Stanford Medicine Cancer Center in Palo Alto, CA – incorporates the S250-FIT proton therapy system from Mevion Medical Systems , the most compact cyclotron in the industry. But even with a much small accelerator, proton therapy delivery usually requires a bulky gantry that rotates around the patient to aim the proton beams at the optimal treatment angles.…