Proton Therapy For Cancer
Cancer. It’s an ugly term born out of the millions who suffer and die from the illness each year. Cancer is when the body’s cells mutate and attack other cells. There are rare forms of cancer and common forms of cancer. There is the cancer that affects children and the cancer that affects adults.
There are many organizations that lead the fight against cancer. There is the American Cancer Association, which does a great deal of good in raising money and awareness to fight cancer. There is St. Jude Children’s Hospital, which is an organization based in Memphis that fights childhood cancer through research and treatment.
And there are many person stories about cancer, cancer deaths, cancer fights, and cancer survivors. One of these individuals was a man at St. Jude’s who lost his fight against cancer two years ago, a cancer he had been battling since he had been a teenager. His fight helped raise awareness and his strength inspired others.
Cancer is an epidemic in this country with millions more diagnosed each year and more people undergoing the standard chemotherapy and radiation therapy treatments. There are other treatments, however, that are starting up to the fold. There is one that holds particular promise, especially for more localized cancers. It is called proton therapy.
There are some statistics about proton therapy that are worth noting in this article. They are:
- Proton therapy is a type of radiation that stops at a very specific point in the targeted tissue.
- Researchers report that 99%, 94% and 74% of men treated with proton therapy with prostate cancer have no symptoms with five year follow-ups.
- At the beginning of 2015, more than 30 particle therapy centers were under construction worldwide.
- Patients treated using proton therapy have a significantly reduced risk of impotence.
Proton therapy is a type of radiation therapy, meaning that the treatment uses radiation to start cancer cells and kill them. It is different than chemotherapy and other types of cancer treatments, which can damage a great deal of cells or leave the person extremely weak after treatment.
Proton therapy uses a small molecule called a proton to attack cells. A proton may usually be seen just in terms of physics or quantum mechanics. It is tiny, but it has the effect of harming cancer cells and in some cases eradicating them. Proton therapy is a specialized type of radiation therapy and has proven effective.
Proton therapy is considered targeted therapy, meaning that the radiation, in this case the protons, are targeted to a specific region of the body, often a much smaller region than that of conventional radiation therapy. Proton therapy attacks those cells without moving to other parts of the body, making it great for localized forms of cancer.
There are some terms worth knowing in this article. They are proton beam radiation, proton cancer treatment, proton radiation therapy, proton therapy for brain cancer, proton therapy for breast cancer, proton therapy for cancer, proton therapy for head and neck cancer, proton therapy for prostate cancer, and more.
Proton therapy is particularly good for prostate cancer, which is a cancer that affects the prostates in men. Prostate cancer can leave someone without part of their genitalia, including a missing testicle or other parts of the genitalia. This can lead to a male being unable to have sex.
Proton therapy, because it is a targeted radiation therapy, can attack the cancer cells in the prostate without damaging the overall genitalia, which can lead to men having sex after the treatment. This is similar for cases like brain cancer and breast cancer. Because proton therapy is a targeted therapy, there is little overlap with healthy cells.
A prostate cancer specialist is a doctor that has the ability to diagnose and treat prostate cancer. A prostate cancer specialist can also give guidance on the types of treatments available or if surgery is necessary. A prostate cancer specialist may have the knowledge available for the patient.
The prostate cancer specialist can help out a great deal.
Proton therapy is a type of therapy that can eradicate that very ugly word: cancer. Cancer strikes many people other the course of their lives, causes a great deal of suffering, and is difficult to treat. There is the hope that proton therapy is different.