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Proton therapy, a major opportunity, now!
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Dirk Jan van den Berg
President of the Executive Board of Delft University of Technology
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Address at the opening of the European Investment Bank Netherlands branche office
World Trade Center
May 15, 2014
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Erasmus MC University Medical Center, Leiden University Medical Center and Delft University
of Technology joined forces in the Holland Particle Therapy Center. HollandPTC brings innovative cancer treatment to the Netherlands. The EIB granted this initiative a loan of 90 million
euro’s. The ambitious research program of HollandPTC aligns with the EIB goals for an innovative Europe. The Center is the first of its kind in the Netherlands. The construction can start
this year to receive the first patients in 2016. The three partners call upon the health insurance companies to engage in the necessary contract negotiations now, since this is the only
hurdle standing in the way of realising HollandPTC. A swift conclusion of these talks will serve
the interests of cancer patients in the Netherlands.
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L&G, let me first congratulate the EIB with the opening of the new office here in Amsterdam. As a showcase of the importance of the work of the EIB, it is a great pleasure
for me to present to you briefly the Holland Particle Therapy Center (HollandPTC).
This project is the result of a close cooperation between Erasmus MC University Medical Center, Leiden University Medical Center and Delft University of Technology. It
demonstrates how multidisciplinary research work can carry great promises. And, in
the context of this happy occasion, it serves as a great example of the goals the European Investment Bank wants to achieve. But even more importantly, the project is
also about supplying cancer patients in the Netherlands with access to this important
tumor treatment therapy. You will forgive me to speak about that as well and about
what the necessary steps are - in particular for the health insurance companies - to
turn HollandPTC into reality.
We are witnessing a change in the global geography of science and research. Excellence in research and higher education will no longer be the exclusive domain of the
Western European and North American hemispheres. In Asia and Latin America - and
to a certain extent in Africa too - important points of gravity in higher education and
research are emerging. This is not to be feared, but rather to be welcomed and encouraged. A wider global research community can and will contribute to the major
challenges of our times.
However, these developments underline the importance of research and innovation
as the key critical determinant in a thriving and competitive economy. In global trade
and investment patterns, high value adding economic activity will land where the
comparative advantages are best. Since Europe is not particularly well placed in
terms of traditional drivers of specialisation like the presence of oil and minerals or a
youthful population, it will need to boost research and innovation as the key comparative advantage to achieve the well being of its peoples.
This brings the importance of the work of the European Investment Bank into play.
The EIB’s focus on critical infrastructures, healthcare, higher education, research and
innovation and the support for small and medium-sized firms is clearly a key-enabler
in order to position Europe well in the global comparative advantage game. We are
very proud and grateful that the EIB recognised our project, the HollandPTC, as a
valuable contribution to their strategy to make Europe stronger.
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Let me briefly explain the importance of proton therapy. It is sad but true, worldwide,
more than 8 million people die annually as a result of cancer. In our country, the proportion of adults affected by cancer, as well as the number of patients dying due to
cancer increases every year. Traditional radiotherapy with photons seriously risks to
affect the healthy tissues surrounding the tumor. The advantage of a therapy with
small particles instead of light, with protons, is the ability to much better direct the
beam into the center of the tumor. In addition, protons will travel through the body
only to unleash their power reaching the tumor, without causing serious harm during
their trajectory.
These characteristics makes proton therapy a very crucial treatment opportunity for a
whole range of tumors, in particular those located in the vicinity of vital structures.
This includes head and neck cancer, tumors of the brain, eye-tumors, and most likely
other tumors in other structures as the pancreas. One doesn't need to be a doctor to
understand that collateral damage in the neck and the head can be very dangerous
and even prohibitive to receiving conventional radiotherapy at all.
Our initiative will allow us to be part of a global research network involving partners in
the USA and Canada, focusing on research holding the promise for optimizing the
treatment. We are very welcome, since the Erasmus MC University Medical Center
houses world level experts and researchers in the area of head and neck cancers,
while the Leiden University Medical Center is a globally renowned eye tumor center.
The cooperation between two university medical centers and a university of technology will allow us to execute a unique and ambitious research agenda focusing on the
improvement of proton delivery into the tumor. Imagine real time position monitoring
and control of proton pencil beams making sure protons will be delivered right into
the tumor. If we succeed, it will mean a world-wide breakthrough in the treatment of
cancers.
We are very grateful that the EIB recognised and appreciated the importance of our
research agenda. In fact, it has been the crucial argument for the EIB to select HollandPTC as its only partner in the Netherlands in the development of proton therapy.
The EIB has put words into action and granted us a loan of 90 million euros. Success
will bring Europe at the highest level of global research and innovation on radiation
therapy for the treatment of cancer. The application driven nature of our research will
open up commercial opportunities as well.
Up until now I spoke about our initiative as if it was only designed to please researchers, policymakers and businesses. Nothing could be further from the truth. We
are very driven to offer this new and highly promising therapy to cancer patients in
the Netherlands and to bring our national offering of this therapy at par and beyond
with countries like Germany, Switzerland, France, Italy and the UK. We have completed all the preparations so we can start to build this year enabling us to receive our
first patients in 2016. We are strongly committed to bring this groundbreaking therapy to cancer patients in the Netherlands. Why keep patients in the Netherlands waiting?
The healthcare system in the Netherlands requires a contractual agreement between
health care facilities, and the health insurance companies on tariffs and number of
treatments. We have presented the insurers with a turnkey project, that can start today, that, with the EIB financing, requires no other investments than from the 3 partners involved. We propose competitive tariff levels, embedded in a restrictive business case. Incidence of cancers in the Netherlands for which proton therapy is an established treatment greatly surpasses the planned capacity in our project. There is
room for the 3 other initiatives. They are in different stages of development however,
none of them ahead of us, nor carrying a research agenda of similar depth.
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We have requested the Ministry of Health, Wellbeing and Sports to allow HollandPTC
to treat children as well. There is no scientific argument of any sort not to agree to
that. All the more because currently Dutch children are now being treated in Centers
abroad totally similar in setup to HollandPTC, so why not allow here in the Netherlands what we accept elsewhere. This would enable us to include the - fortunately very few paediatric patients (2 pct of the total incidence) in the Netherlands as well.
We appreciate the budgetary predicaments health insurers are confronted with, but
that is exactly why our proposition is a no-brainer. The logical thing for the insurers to
do is to take up the first initiative that is ready - HollandPTC to be precise - and then
to further develop capacity in the Netherlands along the line of readiness of proposals. This approach is very much in the interest of cancer patients in the Netherlands.
Their well-being is, after all, the driving inspiration of our work.
One wonders what is taking the insurers so long. Forgoing on this opportunity would
be against the interest of cancer patients and would divorce the Dutch research
community from world class research and innovation opportunities in a very crucial
area of health care and wellbeing.
Let me conclude by thanking the EIB for the trust invested in our project. One could
think of no better signature project, combining many objectives of the EIB in one single undertaking. We hope and expect to build HollandPTC, for the benefit of cancer
patients, for the further advancement of research in cancer treatment and for the education of future doctors and researchers to challenge cancer.
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