In a new study, researchers found that proton therapy leads to a much lower risk of side effects severe enough to lead to unplanned hospitalizations for cancer patients when compared with traditional radiation.
The cure rates between the two groups are almost identical.
The research was conducted by a team in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
Proton therapy has a few key differences from traditional photon radiation.
Photon radiation typically uses multiple X-ray beams to deliver radiation to the tumor target but unavoidably deposits radiation in the normal tissues beyond the target, potentially damaging those tissues as the beam exits the body.
Proton therapy is an FDA-approved alternative radiation treatment that directs positively charged protons at the tumor.
They deposit the bulk of the radiation dose to the target with almost no residual radiation delivered beyond the target, reducing damage to surrounding healthy tissue and potentially reducing side effects.
In the study, the team evaluated whether or not patients undergoing radiation therapy at the same time as chemotherapy experienced serious adverse events within 90 days.
The side effects included pain or difficulty swallowing, difficulty breathing, nausea, or diarrhea, among others.
They evaluated data on 1,483 cancer patients receiving radiation and chemotherapy at the same time. Of these, 391 patients received proton therapy, while 1,092 underwent photon treatment.
The researchers found proton therapy reduces the relative risk of these side effects by two-thirds. Importantly, overall survival and disease-free survival were similar between the two groups.
This is exciting because it shows that proton therapy offers a way to reduce the serious side effects of chemo-radiation and improve patient health and wellbeing without sacrificing the effectiveness of the therapy.
The team says proton therapy may allow older patients to receive the most effective combined treatments, and that older, sicker patients can more safely be included in clinical trials that use proton therapy.
The lead author of the study is Brian Baumann, MD, an adjunct assistant professor of Radiation Oncology at Penn.
The study is published in JAMA Oncology.
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