Beginning late 2015, North Texas cancer patients won鈥檛 have to leave town to get proton beam therapy. It鈥檚 an advanced form of radiation treatment using energized particles or protons to destroy cancerous cells.
Dr. Andrew Lee is medical director of The Texas Center for Proton Therapy. He launched a similar operation at M-D Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Dr. Lee talked about proton therapy for our consumer health series Vital Signs.
From Dr. Lee鈥檚 interview鈥�
Proton therapy vs. X-ray radiation: X-ray therapy typically, even with high energy, will deposit most of its radiation before the tumor, and will keep on depositing radiation dose after the tumor. Whereas in proton therapy, you may have some entrance dose, but the majority of the radiation is deposited at the site of the tumor and there鈥檚 no radiation deposition after the tumor.
What kinds of cancer are treated: Almost anything that can be treated with conventional x-ray therapy is also treated with proton therapy. That includes brain tumors, tumors of the head and neck, lung cancer, prostate cancer and, of course, pediatric malignancies.
Adults benefit from proton therapy, but why children especially: 鈥淟argely because their tissue is still developing. So even low radiation exposure to developing tissue can cause a significant delay, not only in the development, but also in the function.
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