The Advantages of Proton Treatment for Cancer Patients

 

X-Ray radiation has been a successful type of cancer treatment for may years, but the problem has been that surrounding tissues can receive the same dose as the cancer, and they can be damaged in the process.

 

Unfortunately in many cases, a less than desired dose of X-Rays are used on the cancer to keep from doing damage to nearby tissues. Proton treatment of cancer poses a much more positive outcome for radiation therapy. This type of therapy in effect allows for a much more focused hit on the cancer in that there is less destruction of surrounding tissue.

 

This is a great breakthrough because not only is the treatment more effective in being able to select specific areas of treatment, leaving most of the normal cells intact, but the patient does not have to go through all of the paing and discomfort that is usually associated with X-Ray radiation treatment.

 

In actuality with the proton therapy, the patient feels nothing during the treatment. Since there is only minimal treatment, there is no nausea, vomiting or diarrhea. So the treatment allows for a better quality of life after the treatment and moving forward as well.

 

Although proton therapy is better able to treat cancers closer to the surface, treatments are available with different dosage levels to treat cancers that are deeper under the surface of the skin.

Protons are a more superior form of radiation therapy as the protons affect orbiting electrons of the cancer cells, pulling them out of their orbits around the nucleus of the cell. Cancer cells are less able to repair this damage than normal cells, thus it is a more effective treatment. The treatment actually damages the DNA of the cancer cells, rendering them harmless.

 

The bottom line of proton treatment therapy is that it allows the doctors to have a greater precision in where the treatment is directed at specific velocities that are commensurate with the destruction of the cancer cells and not the normal cells surrounding the area.

 

The proton beam has a larger mass than an x-ray beam, and so it has a smaller "scatter" and is a more directed beam. It stays focused more on the tumor area itself and it only delivers a low dose of radiation because of this. Then too, all protons have only a give range that they can travel, and once they reach that range they stop, which also diminishes damage.