Proton Therapy Review: Value as treatment option for Head and Neck Cancers

Julie McCrossin, Founding Director at The Westerman Jilya Institute for Indigenous Mental Health, shared a post on LinkedIn about a recent paper by Kamila Bała et al. titled “Proton Therapy in The Treatment of Head And Neck Cancers- Review” published in Current Oncology Reports.

Authors: Kamila Bała, Yana Samovich and Karolina Dorobisz.

“Proton Therapy Review: Value as treatment option for Head and Neck Cancers.

• Purpose of Review

Head and neck cancers rank as the seventh most common cancer worldwide, nearly half of which result in death. The most common treatment methods for head and neck cancers include radiotherapy and surgery.

Proton therapy has emerged in radiotherapy for cases where tumors are located near anatomically sensitive areas where the radiation dose must be strictly limited. The purpose of the work is to discuss the role of the proton therapy in the treatment in various types of cancer, and particularly head and neck tumors.

• Recent Findings

Proton therapy allows for the delivery of radiation doses to critical organs to be reduced, resulting in a decrease in the occurrence of late adverse effects on these organs. The occurrence of side effects caused by proton therapy depends on the relative and absolute volume of organs at risk receiving specific radiation doses.

• Summary

Proton therapy represents a promising alternative to conventional radiotherapy due to the reduced number of complications in healthy tissues by delivering a lower radiation dose outside the tumor area.”

Source: Julie McCrossin/LinkedIn