A Proud Moment in a Mother's Life

Comment: My son is the project manager of this site. It was his work and his crew that brought this cancer treatment plant to treating patients nine months early.

August 27, 2009

IBA AND PROCURE SET NEW WORLD RECORD IN PROTON THERAPY, OPENING THE OKLAHOMA CENTER NINE MONTHS AHEAD OF STANDARD SCHEDULE

Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, August 27, 2009 – IBA (Ion Beam Applications S.A.) and ProCure
Treatment Centers, Inc., (ProCure) announced today that the ProCure Proton Therapy Center in Oklahoma City, U.S.A., delivered proton radiation treatment to its first patient using IBA’s Proteus 235 proton delivery system. It took only 27 months to build the facility, install the equipment and treat the first patient, setting a world record by nine months. Patients from Oklahoma, across the country and around the world can now benefit from this technology.
Before the Oklahoma center, at least three years were needed to build a proton therapy center.

IBA and ProCure worked closely and very effectively together to reduce the development time for the four room center, which will treat about 1,500 patients a year.

“This achievement represents a new and substantial milestone for the proton therapy community. The team we have put together with ProCure is proud of this record achievement and making this technology available to patients in the Oklahoma region,” said Pierre Mottet, Chief Executive Officer of IBA. “IBA has demonstrated its leadership in the development of proton centers and its ability to equip simultaneously multiple large facilities around the world.”

“We value our relationship with IBA and can count on them to be responsive, innovative and devoted to quality,” said Hadley Ford, Chief Executive Officer of ProCure. “Getting the center built quickly is important because so many patients are waiting for this therapy, but our overriding focus has been on excellence. The result is a center that is exceptional.”

Oklahoma City is the first installation with Inclined Beam technology, which was developed by ProCure and IBA as an alternative to a gantry. The inclined beam can treat approximately 80% of the tumors treated with a gantry at only about 50% of the cost. Moreover, the treatment room requires much less space than a gantry.

With this center now open in Oklahoma, seven proton therapy centers equipped by IBA are treating patients every day in Asia and the U.S. IBA is also involved with the simultaneous construction and installation of seven additional proton therapy centers. Six of the centers are on-site installations: three are in the U.S. and three are in Europe.

Proton therapy is an advanced alternative to X-ray radiation therapy for certain types of cancerous and non-cancerous tumors. Proton therapy has superior dose distribution, depositing the majority of its energy within a precisely controlled range, directly within the tumor, sparing healthy tissues. Higher doses can be delivered to the tumor without increasing the risk of side effects and long-term complications, improving outcomes and quality of life for patients. Proton therapy has limited availability around the world, but now that patients are being treated at the ProCure Proton Therapy Center in Oklahoma, more patients can benefit from this effective treatment.

ABOUT IBA
Founded in 1986 in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, IBA is primarily active in the medical industry. It develops and markets state-of-the-art equipment and radiopharmaceuticals for cancer diagnosis and treatment. In addition, it uses the scientific expertise thus gained to provide electron accelerators for industrial sterilization and ionization. Listed on the pan-European stock exchange Euronext, IBA is included in the BEL Mid Index (IBA: Reuters IBAB.BR and Bloomberg IBAB.BB).

Website: http://www.iba-worldwide.com
Contact
IBA
Thomas Ralet
VP Corporate Communication
Telephone: +32 10.20.12.48
thomas.tralet@iba-group.com

ABOUT PROCURE
ProCure Treatment Centers, Inc., based in Bloomington, Ind., was founded in 2005 to improve the lives of patients with cancer by increasing access to proton therapy. ProCure collaborates with leading radiation oncology practices and hospitals and provides management leadership and a comprehensive approach for the design, construction, financing, staffing, training and day-to-day operations of world-class proton therapy centers. ProCure’s solution reduces the time, cost and effort necessary to create a facility. ProCure is the only company in the world with a center open and treating patients, another under construction and three others in development. ProCure’s Training and Development Center is the first facility in the world dedicated exclusively to proton therapy. For more information, visit www.procure.com.
Contact
ProCure
Andrea Johnson
Telephone 312-558-1770
ajohnson@pcipr.com