ROYAL OAK, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – When 46-year-old Tiffiney Beard of Redford, Michigan, was diagnosed with a rare, aggressive salivary gland cancer, she braced for the worst – intense pain, cognitive decline, and an uncertain future. Instead, Beard made history. She became the first patient in the U.S. to undergo step-and-shoot proton arc therapy for head and neck cancer – a groundbreaking treatment that could revolutionize cancer care across the country.
First in the nation in Royal Oak.
Beard underwent treatment at Corewell Health William Beaumont University Hospital in Royal Oak in 2024. The new approach uses targeted bursts of radiation, gives doctors more accuracy while sparing surrounding healthy tissue and organs. According to MedicineNet, proton therapy uses positively charged particles – protons – instead of traditional X-rays to target cancer. Proton arc therapy takes this a step further, delivering the radiation with greater precision.
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While this treatment takes a bit longer than standard proton therapy, the benefit is fewer side effects – and Beard is living proof.
“For Tiffiney, that was an untold story of a lot of studies in that how will this treatment impact their daily life and maintaining a job,” said Dr. Rohan Deraniyagala, her radiation oncologist. “This is a way to treat cancer patients without removing them from their life.”
Cancer-free and back to beaches and books.
Beard completed her three-month course of daily treatments in August 2024 without missing a single day of work. Aside from mild fatigue and minor skin discoloration, she avoided the brain fog and memory issues often linked to radiation near the head. As of late April 2025, she is nine months cancer-free.
Beard’s successful case was presented at the International Symposium on Proton Therapy and published in the International Journal of Particle Therapy. The therapy is now expected to expand to patients with breast, lung, and prostate cancer.
Corewell Health says in its news release, “Compared to other proton therapies, the step-and-shoot technology uses a proton beam to distribute radiation exactly to the tumor area in a more continuous, automated fashion with less lag time between radiation dosages. Other therapies involve manual delivery methods that take more time and monitoring and can be less accurate.”
They go on to say, “Because this new technology allows physicians to pinpoint a tumor more precisely, the patient results so far show that the therapy can spare surrounding healthy tissue and organs as well as decrease side effects, something Beard is grateful for.”
Life, reprioritized.
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According to MLive, Beard says the experience reshaped her values and she’s now traveling more and spending more time with her five-year-old niece. “I’m a very involved aunt,” she said. “That’s my focal point, to know what’s truly important: teaching her things, showing her things, and being with her as much as I can.”
From beaches to libraries, Beard is focused on life after cancer – thanks to a Michigan-based breakthrough that’s now giving hope to patients across the country.
