12.06.17

The cyclotron was lifted through the roof top at the future Danish Centre for Particle Therapy (photo: Michael Harder).

This Saturday the 71-ton particle accelerator was lifted into the future Danish Centre for Particle Therapy at Aarhus University Hospital. From October 2018 the Centre will provide highly specialised radiation therapy to patients from all over Denmark.

Two large blue containers with a precious gift to Danish patients with cancer arrived Friday night to the construction site at Danish Centre for Particle Therapy at Aarhus University Hospital. After a long journey from the manufacturer VARIAN’s facilities in Troisdorf in south-west Germany, the accelerator – also called the cyclotron – was lifted into the new building behind thick concrete walls at Aarhus University Hospital.

- The particle accelerator is the heart of Danish Centre for Particle Therapy. It delivers the particles used to treat patients with radiotherapy, says Morten Høyer, Head Consultant at Danish Centre for Particle Therapy.

Particle therapy is a more gentle type of radiation therapy for patients with cancer. It is especially useful to treat children and adults with tumours in e.g. the brain or close to the spine.

It will be more than a year before the first patient can be treated with particle therapy in Aarhus in October 2018.

- Now the accelerator will be installed and adjusted to optimise the equipment to be ready when patient treatment starts.

Facts about Danish Centre for Particle Therapy

• Danish Centre for Particle Therapy will be a national centre providing highly specialised radiation therapy for patients with cancer. The centre is under construction at Aarhus University Hospital and the first patients will be treated in October 2018.

• In full operation, Danish Centre for Particle Therapy will have a capacity to perform approximately 30,000 treatments annually, equivalent to approximately 1,200 patients. A total number of approximately 120 full-time employees will manage patient treatment. In addition, a number of externally financed researchers, PhD students, pupils and students from all staff groups will be attached to the centre.  

• The centre will be 9,500 square meters. In addition to the proton accelerator, there will be three treatment rooms, research facilities and facilities for patients, relatives and clinical staff. Danish Centre for Particle Therapy is established in a close collaboration between Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus University and Central Denmark Region.

• Establishment of the centre costs approximately DKK 800 million, of which DKK 280 million will cover equipment. A.P. Møller and wife Chastine Mc-Kinney Møller’s Fond til almene Formaal has donated DKK 250 million to the particle accelerator.

• Read about particle therapy at http://www.en.auh.dk/departments/cancer-and-inflammation-centre/the-danish-centre-for-particle-therapy/

Contact persons at Danish Centre for Particle Therapy: 

• Morten Høyer, Head Consultant, mobile phone: +45 23 28 28 23
• Ole Nørrevang, Head Physicist, mobile phone: +45 21 17 41  93
• Dorte Oksbjerre Mortensen, Head Nurse, mobile phone: +45 30 46 36 70