Yale New Haven Health System and Hartford HealthCare plan to build the first proton therapy center in Connecticut and provide advanced radiation therapy to cancer patients.

The planned centre in Wallingford has received final approval from the state government and is expected to open in 2025, the companies said on Tuesday.

Proton therapy is a type of targeted radiation that uses a beam of high-energy proton particles instead of X-rays to treat cancer growth. Using this approach, higher doses of radiation can be more finely controlled to avoid affecting healthy tissue when attacking solid cancer tumors.

Several studies in recent years have shown that proton therapy is associated with less serious side effects compared to conventional photon radiation therapy. However, no differences were reported in survival or cancer termination rates between the two treatments.

Proton International will assist Yale New Haven and Hartford in the development of the proton facilities, managing technology selection, finance, construction and operations. Staff from both health systems will work at the Wallingford Centre, which will include a treatment room, control room, examination room and clinical space.

There are more than 30 proton therapy centers in the United States, including the Mayo Clinic facility in Rochester, Minnesota and one in New York facility Developed by Mount Sinai Health System, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and Montefiore Health System.

The University of Kansas Health System, McLaren Healthcare and Covenant Health also plan to open proton therapy centers.

While health systems continue to invest in advanced treatment centers, insurers and other members of the health care industry are uncertain about the efficacy of proton therapy, especially the pricier ones.

both Antai and United Medical Denied reports of proton therapy for cancer patients, claiming the treatment is expensive, experimental and has not been shown to be more effective than standard radiation.

Due to lack of reimbursement and steady patient flow, some proton therapy centers have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protectionincluding offering CARES proton therapy Knoxville in 2021.