Medical center won't buy cancer-treatment machine

There were multiple reasons for the decision, a spokeswoman said.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- Ohio State University Medical Center has scrapped a plan to buy a new machine that destroys cancerous tumors, in part because of its enormous cost, a spokeswoman said.
The particle-therapy machine could cost between 100 million and 300 million, said spokeswoman Sue Jablonski. For the past two years, the hospital has been eyeing the machine, which is so large that it requires a special building, but decided it didn't make sense from a "financial, operational and research perspective," she said.
The technology is promising but not completely proven, Jablonski said. The machine focuses radiation more precisely on malignant tumors with less risk of damage to healthy surrounding tissue.
The hospital had considered offering particle-therapy at a new medical complex being developed in the suburb of Dublin.
Told about project
Dublin city manager Jane Brautigam said Ohio State officials informed her this week that the project wouldn't be going forward.
"They said at the present time, the project is not financially feasible," she said. "To me, that left the door open in the future for when it will be."
The state's Third Frontier program, which lures high-tech development, turned down two grant requests that would have supported part of the project, but that's not why the medical center panned it for now, Jablonski said.
The hospital kept the university Board of Trustees briefed on the project but never presented an official proposal.
"We're not saying canceled because it's something we may revisit again," she said. "I don't know if that's in six months or two years, but we're never going to say never."