Proton Therapy

1. Proton Therapy Future Course Of Treatment For Cancer

2. Proton therapy, also known as proton beam therapy, is a typical radiation treatment done with the help of protons instead of x-ray, for treating cancer. A proton is typically a positively charged particle, which is also a part of atom, the main unit of various chemical elements, like oxygen or hydrogen. At extremely high energy, protons can easily destroy or kill cancer cells.

3. Proton therapy is known for its use in cancer treatment. It was used for the first time in 1974 in the United States of America. Later in 1990, the pioneering U.S hospital-based proton facility started treating patients. Thereafter, tens of thousands of cancer patients in USA have received different types of proton therapy. However, the number of American cancer centers offering specialized proton therapy and treatment is small although growing in number.

4. Proton Therapy Is Different From Radiation – How?

5. Like a standard x-ray radiation, proton therapy is a specific external beam radiation therapy. It delivers radiation painlessly through the skin from a machine that is placed outside the body. However, protons target the tumor with low radiation doses to the adjoining normal tissues approximately 60 percent lower, which depends on the tumor location.

6. Traditional radiation therapies tend to damage the tissues surrounding the tumor. With proton therapy, however, the energy of protons hit the site of tumor, thus delivering smaller doses of the treatment to the healthy tissues. With standard methods of treatment, doctors need to decrease the dose of radiation to limit the side effects caused as a result of damage to the healthy tissues. With proton therapy for treatment, on the contrary, doctors can choose an appropriate dose, knowing that there is a high possibility of fewer early as well as late side effects of this radiation on healthy tissues.

7. Treating Cancers With Proton Therapy

8. Proton therapy reaches a specific site of patient’s body, which makes it efficient to shrink tumors that haven’t spread to other body parts. It is quite useful in the treatment of tumor lying next to the critically important tissues like optic nerves traveling between the brain and eye that required protection from the radiation.

9. Doctors use proton therapy all alone, or in combination with standard surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy. Proton therapy is specifically useful in treating cancer in young ones because it reduces the risk of harming healthy and developing tissues. Children may also receive proton therapy for some of the rarest cancers affecting the spinal cord and brain (central nervous system) and the eye, like orbital rhabdomyosarcoma and retinoblastoma.

10. In addition, there are other forms of cancers that benefit from proton therapy, such as: • Cancers of the central nervous system – chondrosarcoma, malignant meningioma, and chordoma • Cancer of the eye – chorodial melanoma and uveal melanoma • Cancers of the neck and head – nasal cavity cancer, nasopharyngeal cancer and paranasal cancer

11. Liver cancer • Lung cancer • Pelvic and spinal sarcomas • Prostate cancer There are some noncancerous tumors affecting the brain that may also be helped with the use of proton therapy for treatment.