Kansas City Proton Institute

The Kansas City Proton Institute (KCPI) in Overland Park, Kansas is one of few proton beam therapy centers in the nation, and the first physician-led outpatient proton therapy center in the Midwest. The multispecialty medical clinic and cancer therapy center brings together expert oncologists, clinical care teams, and researchers to improve cancer care and advance the clinical evidence for proton therapy. On what can be an intimidating journey of cancer treatment and recovery, KCPI offers patient-centered care in a comfortable outpatient setting, using the most cutting-edge technology available to date.

The centerpiece of the 40,000-square-foot, two-story KC Proton Institute is a MEVION S250iTM Proton Therapy System with HYPERSCAN® Pencil Beam Scanning technology, the world’s smallest proton therapy system. It is secured inside a three-story high, 42-foot-by-47-foot vault featuring concrete walls ranging from three to seven and a half feet thick. Because being as little as one inch off in thickness would result in less radiation shielding, the center was designed and built with extreme precision, with tolerances less than three-quarters-inch wall-to-wall and one-inch floor-to-ceiling. The complete unit includes a 30,000-pound proton beam accelerator and 72,000 pounds of arms and counterweights.

Other equipment and services provided in this medical office building are a linear accelerator and PET-CT scan. The building was designed with shell space for future expansion, and the site was prepared for the construction of a second vault for a future proton beam therapy system.

By providing this service in a less costly outpatient and non-academic medical center hospital setting, the Kansas City Proton Institute has set a new bar for affordable access to cancer treatment for the Midwestern United States. This, along with the large network of referring Kansas City Urology Center healthcare providers, will offer a more direct line to time-sensitive, life-changing cancer treatment.