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Within the Proton Therapy facility, cancer was treated using TRIUMF’s 520 MeV cyclotron. In partnership with BC Cancer, beams of protons were used for the treatment of ocular melanoma, a rare cancer of the eye. Today, there are several proton therapy centres in North America, and while TRIUMF’s Proton Therapy facility has ceased operations, TRIUMF and BC Cancer continue their collaboration on several other existing and future facilities.Decommissioned in 2019, TRIUMF provided this service for 25 years treating over 200 patients from both Canadian and abroad.
TRIUMF’s 13 MeV cyclotron is the smallest cyclotron on site, and is similar to those installed in most urban hospitals used for the production of medical isotopes for clinical use. In collaboration with partners such as the University of British Columbia (UBC), the TR-13 creates short-lived isotopes (such as Carbon-11 and Fluorine-18) that can be transported to UBC Hospital via high pressure pneumatic “Rabbit Line”. The rabbit line sends isotopes to the hospital 2 kilometers away at speeds over 100 km/hour making the journey from TRIUMF in approximately 2 minutes. Three additional medical cyclotrons operated in partnership with BWXT produce approximately 2 million patient doses of medical isotopes per year.
