Proton therapy safer than older radiotherapies for esophageal cancer

the Oncology Nurse Advisor take:

According to new researcher presented at the annual conference of the Particle Therapy Cooperative Group in San Diego, California, researchers from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore have found that patients with esophageal cancer treated with proton therapy experienced significantly fewer adverse events than patients treated with conventional radiation therapies.

For the study, researchers identified about 600 patients with esophageal cancer and found that proton therapy was associated with significantly fewer incidents of nausea, blood abnormalities, and loss of appetite than older radiation therapies.

Proton therapy has shown efficacy in various types of cancer, including brain, breast, esophageal, head and neck, liver, lung, prostate, and spinal cord cancers. It is expected that up to 30% of patients with cancer will benefit from targeted proton beam therapy, which can precisely target tumors while reducing radiation to healthy issue.

"This evidence underscores the precision of proton therapy, and how it can really make a difference in cancer patients' lives," said Michael Chuong, MD, an assistant professor of radiation oncology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.