The ABCs of Proton Therapy: What You Need To Know

The great thing about proton therapy when it comes to, for example, cancer treatment, is that it specifically targets the cancer cells without affecting the surrounding tissue too much, its beams damaging the very DNA of the tumor in question. Very few protons of a given energy penetrate beyond the range or distance that is within their designated limits, making them precision cancer treatment instruments. That's what you should expect from proton therapy in a proton therapy center. What's more, the dose of protons unto the tissue is at maximum just over the last few millimeters of the particle's range, which is called the Bragg Peak incidentally. You just read this article and get more details about Proton Beam Therapy.

When treating in-depth tumors, the proton accelerator should produce beams with higher energies than usual, typically given at the measurement unit of electron volts or eV. This therapy is mostly effective against tumors that are close to the body through lower-energy or eV protons. Accelerators utilized for this therapy type usually deliver protons at energies that range from 70-250 MeV or million electron volts. When it comes to proton therapy treatment of prostate cancer, for example, there are published studies that show reduction in long term genito-urinary and rectal damage from treating the disease with protons instead of photons (gamma ray or x-ray therapy).

However, there are also studies out there that say there's only a negligible difference between the two, limited to cases where the prostate is close to certain anatomical structures. What this means is that as far as prostate proton therapy treatment is concerned, it might be better to stick to photon treatment according to some papers since there's only a relatively small improvement. There are those that question the results, saying that they came about due to internal organ movement during treatment and inconsistent patient setup. This therefore offsets the obvious advantages of increases proton therapy precision. The downside of precision is he slightest miscalculations can render treatment attempts null and void.

There are sources that suggest that 20% dosage errors can happen from motion errors of just 2.5 millimeters. Furthermore, prostate motion is between 5 to 10 millimeters, making precision extremely difficult to achieve. With that said, the majority of precision proton treatment slots are reserved for prostate treatments since prostate cancer diagnosis far exceeds the diagnosis of diseases such as unresectable sarcomas, skull base ad paraspinal tumors (chordoma and chondrosarcoma), and uveal melanoma (ocular tumors).

50% to 65% of proton treatments in at least two hospitals are done on prostate cancer, while there are some that devote only 7.1% of treatment for them. It varies from hospital to hospital.