ProCure Proton Therapy Center opened its doors in Somerset NJ in March 2012, becoming the tri-state region’s first and longest-established proton therapy facility. Eight years later, in October 2020, the center marked another milestone: a prostate cancer patient became the 5,000th person treated with proton therapy at ProCure.
The center is also a dedicated COMPPARE partner site that has diligently recruited and retained prostate cancer patients for the study.
“Virtually all of our patients enrolled in COMPPARE are committed and are excited to impart important clinical data which can affect so many future patients,” said ProCure Medical Director Brian H. Chon, MD, Principal Investigator for the COMPPARE study. “Our entire clinical team is actively involved and know this is a priority for the center.”
Dr. Chon credits the ProCure research team’s persistence and engagement with patients for its correspondingly high retention rates in COMPPARE.
“Retention is absolutely critical,” he explained. “We have all worked so hard to initiate this study and enroll patients. We all want to find the best way we can help patients and getting long-term data and follow up is crucial to this endeavor.”
The ProCure team conducts monthly meetings to keep all members abreast of study details and updates. In addition, nurses consistently relay information to physicians and research staff members to make sure nothing falls through the cracks.
“Communication is key: Our research team is acutely aware of our daily schedules and reminds us when patients need to be seen and evaluated,” said Dr. Chon. “They are dogged in making sure physicians complete the requisite documentation in a prompt and timely fashion. They really deserve all the credit.”
Our COMPPARE Consortium Spotlight provides insight into the successes of our partner proton and photon centers across the U.S. We are grateful to Dr. Chon and his team for their input and dedicated participation in COMPPARE, and we appreciate all partner sites working so diligently to improve prostate cancer outcomes for men.