By Stephen Towe

I’m often asked what we mean when we talk about “bringing particle therapy closer to care.”

It’s a phrase that appears simple. But for me, it’s deeply personal.

Because before it was a mission, or a strategy, or even a company, it was a moment in time that changed how I saw cancer care forever.

Where It Started

Like many people in this field, my motivation didn’t begin in a boardroom. It began with loss.

Losing my father to cancer was a defining experience in my life because of the questions it left behind.

You come to realise that in cancer care, outcomes are not determined by science alone. They are shaped by access. And access, too often, is unequal.

The Gap Between Innovation and Reality

We live in an era of extraordinary innovation in oncology.

Particle therapy, particularly proton therapy, has demonstrated its ability to deliver highly precise treatment, reducing damage to healthy tissue and improving quality of life for patients. Clinically, its value is clear and continues to grow.

And yet, for most patients around the world, it may as well not exist. Why?

For decades, access to advanced cancer treatment has been limited not by clinical expertise, but by the sheer size, complexity, and cost of the infrastructure required to deliver it. As a result, treatment centres remain few and far between.

This is not just a challenge in developing nations. Even in many developed countries, access to proton therapy is limited or unavailable altogether. The consequence is that countless patients who could benefit from this highly advanced form of cancer care are never given the opportunity to receive it – not because the treatment doesn’t exist, but because it isn’t accessible where they live.

For many patients, receiving care means travelling hundreds of miles, temporarily relocating for weeks, or, in some cases, foregoing treatment altogether because the burden is simply too great.

But the impact extends far beyond the patient. Families are often forced into impossible choices at the very moment they need to be together most. One partner may need to stay behind to keep working. Children may remain at home while a parent undergoes treatment elsewhere. Loved ones are separated during some of the most emotional, frightening, and uncertain days of their lives – when support, comfort, and togetherness matter more than ever.

That is the gap, we at Leo Cancer Care, are trying to close.

Rethinking the Model

At Leo Cancer Care, we asked a fundamental question:

What if the problem isn’t the therapy – but the way we deliver it?

Traditional particle therapy systems were designed around the machine. Massive rotating gantries, purpose-built facilities, and centralised treatment models became the norm.

But what if we designed around the patient instead?

This thinking led to Marie® – our upright particle therapy solution.

By fixing the beam and rotating the patient, we remove the need for gantries entirely. The result is a system that is smaller, more flexible, and significantly more viable for a broader range of healthcare providers.

But more importantly, it allows us to think differently about where and how care is delivered.

What “Closer to Care” Really Means

Bringing particle therapy closer to care is not just about geography, although that is a critical part of it.

It means:

• Reducing the distance patients must travel to access life-changing treatment
• Lowering the financial and infrastructure barriers that limit adoption
• Embedding advanced therapy within existing healthcare systems, not outside them
• Designing treatment experiences that are more human, more dignified, and more connected

It’s about moving from a world where patients go to the technology… to hopefully, a world where the technology comes to the patient.

A Shift in Perspective

One of the most powerful aspects of our approach is also one of the simplest: treating patients in an upright position. It changes the dynamic in the room.

Patients are not lying down, staring at a ceiling, feeling passive in the process. They are upright, engaged, and more present. Clinicians can interact with them more naturally. There is a sense, however subtle, of restoring independence at a time when so much feels out of their control.

For me, that matters.

Because bringing care closer isn’t just about access. It’s about the overall experience.

The Responsibility to Scale

Of course, innovation alone is not enough. If we truly want to change outcomes, we must think in terms of scale.

That means building solutions that are not only clinically effective but economically viable. Solutions that investors can support, that healthcare systems can adopt, and that can be deployed across regions, not just in flagship centres.

This is where I believe the next chapter of particle therapy will be written. Not in proving its value, but in making it accessible.

Why It Matters

I often think back to my father. And I think about the millions of families around the world facing similar journeys today.

Bringing particle therapy closer to care won’t change every outcome. But it will change some. And for those patients, for those families, that difference is everything. That is what drives us.

And that is what we mean when we say: “Closer to Care”.