Specialty Cancer Treatment Center Opening In Wallingford

WALLINGFORD, CT — A new cancer treatment center is coming to Wallingford, and it will bring an advanced form of radiation therapy to Connecticut for the first time.

Yale New Haven Health System and Hartford HealthCare have teamed up to found the Connecticut Proton Therapy Center, a 25,000-square-foot facility set to open at 932 Northrop Road, Wallingford, in 2025.

The center will use proton beam therapy to treat patients. Officials said the treatment is finely-controlled and lessens the amount of entry, exit and scattered radiation — allowing physicians to administer higher radiation doses with fewer side effects.

Proton therapy can treat tumors in the brain and central nervous system, eye, gastrointestinal tract, head and neck, liver, lung, prostate, spine and breast. Officials said the treatment particularly helps children, as their healthy tissue is at greater risk of damage from radiation.

Currently, proton beam therapy is available at only a handful of facilities in the Northeast (none of which are in Connecticut).

When it opens, the Wallingford center will have the latest technology and equipment, a treatment room, a control room, exam rooms, and clinical space, officials said. It will be staffed by physicians and clinical staff from Yale and Hartford HealthCare, as well as new staff members.

Cancer treatment company Proton International is serving as the center's project manager and operator, meaning it's helping with technology selection, financing, construction, and management and operation of the facility.

"This newly established partnership will not only provide our patients and our communities access to proton therapy — one of the most clinically advanced radiation treatments in the world, but it will make Connecticut a 'world-class' destination hub when it comes to state-of-the-art cancer care," Jeffrey A. Flaks, Hartford HealthCare President and CEO, said in a statement. "I could not be more proud of this partnership that will undoubtedly be a game-changer in the lives of cancer patients."

Yale New Haven Health CEO Christopher O'Connor concurred, saying in a statement that YNHH is "proud and excited" to help bring the advanced technology to Connecticut.

"Our unprecedented collaboration with HHC will allow us to care for patients with cancer in a new and effective way by bringing a life-changing therapy to our state," O'Connor said. "We are grateful that the state recognized the value of this technology to residents of Connecticut and the importance of this unique collaboration."

Yale and Hartford HealthCare announced on Tuesday that they have received final state approval for the facility.