The most famous and authoritative specialist at the West German Proton Therapy Center in Essen is the Medical Director of WPE, radio-oncologist Prof. Dr. Beate Timmermann.
In one of her interviews in 2022, she said: “For more than 20 years I have been doing radiation treatment of brain tumors and sarcomas. My scientific and clinical interests also include bone and soft tissue tumors in children and adults, the long-term health effects of proton therapy, and the quality of life of patients during treatment. Another area in which I have been working for a long time is proton beam therapy for childhood cancer. Proton therapy is already included in many protocols for the treatment of various tumors in children in the guidelines of the German Association for Pediatric Radiation Oncology (APRO), the Society for Pediatric Oncology and Hematology (GPOH), and the International Society for Pediatric Oncology (SIOP).
As part of our pediatric program, we provide proton beam therapy to 300 children each year. Most of them have tumors of the brain or spinal cord, sarcomas, neuroblastomas, lymphomas, and retinoblastomas. Proton therapy for children at WPE is delivered by a multidisciplinary team that includes physicians, medical physicists, radiologists, nurses, medical professionals, and technicians. Proton beam therapy requires a high level of expertise, which specialists of WPE can provide. We are involved in scientific projects aimed at optimizing pediatric radiotherapy, such as, for example, EU Horizon Harmonic, which studies the long-term effects of proton irradiation in children. We currently treat patients from all over Europe and from other countries where there are no specialized centers.”