My first patient at Southwest Florida Proton Center was a 11-year-old boy with brain cancer. Proton therapy could aim radiation at his tumor precisely enough to spare the healthy brain tissue around it, but it meant getting him to treatment five days a week, for six weeks straight.

Because our center was close to his home, his family could keep that treatment schedule, and he could go to school, baseball practice, and even cheer on his beloved Red Sox at spring training.