{"id":8159,"date":"2025-09-23T18:59:37","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T18:59:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/?p=8159"},"modified":"2025-09-23T18:59:37","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T18:59:37","slug":"princeton-man-is-the-1st-to-use-osfs-new-proton-beam-therapy-in-peoria-shaw-local","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/?p=8159","title":{"rendered":"Princeton man is the 1st to use OSF\u2019s new proton beam therapy in Peoria – Shaw Local"},"content":{"rendered":"


Tim Scott, of Princeton, stands next to OSF’s proton beam radiation therapy machine. <\/span>(Photo provided by Matt Sheehan)
After officially opening in February, a Princeton<\/a> man was welcomed at the OSF HealthCare Cancer Institute in Peoria as its first proton beam radiation therapy patient.
Tim Scott, 70, is the first patient to receive the treatment at OSF. Scott traveled from Princeton after receiving a prostate cancer diagnosis. He said he searched for the best cancer care nearby as soon as he was given the news about his diagnosis on Valentine\u2019s Day 2024. The OSF Cancer Institute was recommended to him by his care team.
Scott said he wanted to get treatment quickly, knowing his family history with prostate cancer.
\u201cIt had taken my father away and my great-uncle,\u201d Scott said. \u201cI felt fortunate that the proton therapy was in the immediate area.\u201d
On Monday, April 1, Scott began the first of 28 treatments in his cancer journey. He said the appointment was quick, and he felt comfortable with the medical team.
\u201c(The OSF) staff had me laughing, which I like,\u201d Scott said in a news release from OSF. \u201cWe had a good time this morning. Everybody walked out and said \u2018you\u2019re the man! You\u2019re the first guy!\u2019 Everything went really well and it\u2019s an amazing treatment.\u201d
Scott will receive treatments Monday through Friday until he reaches 28 treatments. He said the treatment itself was no more than 10 minutes.
The OSF Cancer Institute is the only center outside of Chicago and St. Louis offering proton therapy in the region. James McGee, MD, founding director of the OSF Cancer Institute, said this treatment is less invasive than current treatments being offered.
\u201cIt\u2019s where a packet of energy with positively charged proton particles is used to go to one spot of the tumor and treat that spot of the tumor,\u201d Dr. McGee said in an OSF news release. \u201cWe\u2019re able to go anywhere in the tumor. Very little dose on the entry side, and no dose on the exit side. Using all of that, we can corral the radiation into the tumor and reduce the dose of radiation to the normal and healthy tissues that we don\u2019t want to get incidental radiation, like the lymph nodes and things where the immune response is being mounted to that cancer.\u201d
The therapy is powered by a Varian ProBeam 360-degree System cyclotron. McGee said the ability to rotate the system 360 degrees allows the technology to target cancer from any angle.
\u201cWe know the biological effect of protons is often felt to be at least 10% higher than with X-ray therapy,\u201d McGee said. \u201cThat gets factored into treatment planning. We also know the ability to give these treatments in a way that doesn\u2019t affect the immune system, allows the actual radiation treatment to be more effective. We\u2019re seeing more and more evidence that there is better tumor control in certain situations. People are not failing that would\u2019ve failed at those doses with X-ray therapy. Also, we\u2019re not generating secondary cancers from the radiation.\u201d
It is estimated the OSF Cancer Institute will treat upwards of 3,700 cancer patients annually.
Proton therapy is used most frequently for head and neck, prostate, spine, breast, sarcoma, brain and esophagus cancers. It can also be a retreatment after prior radiation.
To learn more about cancer services at the OSF Cancer Institute, call 1-844-OSF-4-HOPE or 1-844-673-4467.
Dr. James McGee, of OSF, demonstrates the ProBeam 360. <\/span>(Photo provided by Matt Sheehan)
Shaw Local News Network provides local news throughout northern Illinois<\/p>\n

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Tim Scott, of Princeton, stands next to OSF’s proton beam radiation therapy machine. (Photo provided by Matt Sheehan)After officially opening in February, a Princeton man was welcomed at the OSF HealthCare Cancer Institute in Peoria as its first proton beam radiation therapy patient.Tim Scott, 70, is the first patient to receive the treatment at OSF. Scott traveled from Princeton after<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8159\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}