Proton Beam Therapy

What Types of Cancer can be treated by Proton Beam Therapy?

Proton therapy is useful for treating childhood cancers. Studies have shown proton beam therapy to be effective in treating many types of tumors, central nervous system and gastrointestinal system as well as cancers that cannot be removed completely by surgery. Proton beam therapy is sometimes used to treat:

• Brain tumors
• Breast cancer
• Pancreatic cancer
• Rhabdomyosarcoma, melanoma and other cancers around the eye.
• Head and neck cancers
• Liver cancer
• Lung cancer
• Pituitary gland tumors
• Prostate cancer
• Sarcoma
• Benign

How to Prepare for Proton Beam Therapy?

Proton therapy involves careful planning; you might undergo imaging tests such as computed tomography or MRI to provide pictures of the tumor and the surrounding area before each session. The therapy team usually marks the area for treatment on the body to highlight the exact spot of the tumor. This helps the radiation therapists treat the tumor from several angles.

How Proton Beam Therapy Works?

The actual proton beam therapy treatment may take only a minute or so, but positioning your body may take longer. Positioning the body is very important. The team will adjust you and the instruments to make sure the proton beam will reach the exact spot of the tumor. While the treatment is happening, you must be very still on the table. The team will work with you to help keep you in place.

Step 1 – A machine called a synchrotron or cyclotron speeds up protons. The protons create high energy which makes it able to travel to the desired depth in the body.

Step 2 – The protons then give the targeted radiation dose in the tumor. They release more of their energy within the tumor itself. 

Step 3 – This burst of energy can appear on a graph as what is called the Bragg peak. After delivering the energy to the tumor, the protons stop and it does not damage the healthy tissue.