Proton therapy lowers risk of side effects in cancer

Proton therapy leads to significantly lower risk of side effects for cancer patients when compared with traditional radiation, researchers have found.
For the findings, published in the journal JAMA Oncology, researchers from University of Pennsylvania analysed if the cancer patients going through radiation therapy alongside chemotherapy faced severe side effects in a span of 90 days.
They found proton therapy reduces the relative risk of these side effects by two-thirds.
“This is exciting because it shows that proton therapy offers a way for us to reduce the serious side effects of chemo-radiation and improve patient health and wellbeing without sacrificing the effectiveness of the therapy,” said the study’s lead author Brian Baumann from the University of Pennsylvania in the US.
Proton therapy has a few key differences from traditional photon radiation.
Photon radiation typically uses multiple x-ray beams to deliver radiation to the tumour target but unavoidably deposits radiation in the normal tissues beyond the target, potentially damaging those tissues as the beam exits the body. (IANS)