Is proton beam harmful?
Harm to healthy brain tissue – This occurrence is rare, but sometimes the healthy brain tissue may be damaged during the proton beam therapy treatment, leading to seizures, headaches, or even death of the patient.
What are side effects of proton beam therapy?
In general, common side effects of proton therapy include:
- Fatigue.
- Hair loss around the part of your body being treated.
- Skin redness around the part of your body being treated.
- Soreness around the part of your body being treated.
What type of cancer can be treated with proton therapy?
Which types of cancers can be treated with proton therapy? Proton therapy is most commonly used at MSK to treat head and neck cancer and pediatric cancers. We also are using it increasingly to treat spine tumors, breast cancer, sarcoma, brain tumors, and prostate cancer.
Is proton beam therapy better than CyberKnife?
The accuracy (tissue margin) with Proton Therapy is 20 to 30 millimeters, as compared to only 1 to 5 millimeters with CyberKnife. The number of radiation beams with proton therapy is 2-3, as compared to 100-200+ beams with CyberKnife.
Who is a candidate for proton therapy?
Particularly good candidates for proton therapy are patients with solid tumors near sensitive organs, such as brain, breast and lung cancers. While, for recurrent, pediatric and ocular cancers, proton radiation is viewed as the standard of care.
Is proton therapy painful?
Proton therapy does not cause pain, though some patients with physical limitations may experience some discomfort due to positioning. The actual treatment and delivery of the proton beams only takes a couple of minutes.
How much does proton beam treatment cost?
Analysis at 15 years resulted in an expected mean cost of proton beam therapy and IMRT of $63,511 and $36,808, and $64,989 and $39,355 for a 70-year-old and 60-year-old man respectively, with quality-adjusted survival of 8.54 and 8.12 and 9.91 and 9.45 quality-adjusted life-years (QALY), respectively.