Two DC hospitals vie to establish costly cancer treatment option

Two of the region's largest hospital systems are competing to offer a controversial cancer treatment — joining what critics say is a nationwide medical arms race as hospitals scramble for dominance by investing millions of dollars in technology that has not been proven to be better than cheaper alternatives for some cancers. MedStar Georgetown University Hospital and Sibley Memorial Hospital, part of Johns Hopkins Medicine, are vying to establish proton beam therapy, a cutting-edge radiation treatment touted by supporters as more precise in targeting tumors and safer for healthy tissue than conventional X-rays.