Klinik proton terapi uygulamaları

Proton therapy (PT) has been in clinical use since 1970, and 61,122 patients have been treated as of the end of the 2008 in the world. The major advantage of PT over conventional radiatiotherapy is reduced side effects in the neighboring critical tissues, which in turn results in less treatment interruption and therefore better integration of RT with systemic chemotherapy. Indirectly, reducing late effects permits the radiation oncologist to dose escalation to a tumor which may potentially translate into higher tumor control rates. Additionally, patients experience a relatively better quality of life during and after PT. Proton therapy has been most extensively studied in the treatment of uveal melanomas and chordoma and chondrosarcoma patients. Other common tumors successfully treated with PT include central nervous system, head and neck, breast, lung, esophagus, prostate and liver tumors, and soft tissue/bone sarcomas. Proton therapy was conventinally delivered by passive scattering. Active scanning (AS) was developed at Paul Scherrer Institute. In addition to reducing scattered dose, intensity modulation and inverse planning are possible advantages offered by AS, therefore, most of the proton facilities in the world have voiced their interest in moving towards an AS system. Interest is growing in proton technology and newer PT facilities are being added to currently active ones all over the world.