The proton therapy centre is located on the Health Sciences campus Gasthuisberg and is architecturally and organisationally an integral part of the radiotherapy-oncology department UZ Leuven.
Embedding the proton centre on the campus of a university hospital offers some significant advantages:
- Treatment preparation can take place within the existing radiation-oncology department.
- There is an optimal integration with support services such as imaging, anaesthesia, children's hospital, etc.
- There is a maximum connection with clinical care pathways that use proton therapy (e.g. paediatrics).
Cooperation between the partners
The proton centre houses not only UZ Leuven staff but also a number of colleagues from the radiotherapy-oncology departments of some of the partners mentioned above. Patients can be helped in both Dutch and French.
The centre’s mission is much more than just clinical care. It also includes education & training and research & development. In these areas too we look for close cooperation with several national and international leading academic centres and research institutes (such as for example SCK-CEN, the Nuclear Research Centre in Mol) as well as industrial partners (such as IBA, the supplier of the proton therapy devide). The proton therapy centre is also part of the European Particle Therapy Network’ (EPTN)