First eye cancer patient to be treated with a proton beam in Canada

On August 21,1995, Mr. Lorne Scott became Canada’s first eye cancer patient to be treated with a proton beam in Canada, right at TRIUMF’s Proton Eye Treatment Facility, the only facility of its kind in the nation. The target, a cancerous growth on the back of the eye called choroidal melanoma, is treated with a low-intensity beam of 74 MeV protons extracted from the main cyclotron. Proton therapy delivers surgical precision, without having to remove the eye, with an average success rate of 95% for tumour control, and 80% for the five-year survival rate.