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COMPPARE that tests proton radiation against photon IMRT radiation.
Prostate Cancer | Last Active: 3 days ago | Replies (19)Comment receiving replies
Wouldn't it make a difference that Proton does not exit the body or damage other tissue or organs because it stops at the treatment site? I would think not to have radiation affect other parts of body with exit dosage would help preventing a different cancer years later. Even with very small margins MRI or CT guided Photon the radiation still has to exit the site / body?
Replies to "Wouldn't it make a difference that Proton does not exit the body or damage other tissue..."
@copyman
In my humble non medical opinion you are exactly correct. When you look at the technology Proton vs Photon are two different animals. I guess if, and I say if they use the space-or gel it stops the potential for damage to your colon. The gel is an added insurance in my opinion.
Dave 3+4
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@copyman It should. I have read in a number of places that proton radiation is considered generally superior for other solid tumor cancers. So, one must wonder then “Why not for prostate cancer?”
> are the laws of physics different?
> is prostate cancer tissue different?
> do the treatment centers all not do the calculations the same? (That has happened by the way.)
> is patient compliance an uncontrolled variable in these studies?
This requires some explanation as to why prostate cancer is different from other solid tumor cancers?
The application of proton radiation wasn’t discovered in the medical community for treating solid tumor cancers; it was discovered in the scientific/physics community, and they discovered that these heavy subatomic particles with wavelike properties acted differently than photons (x-rays).
It was the physicist William Bragg who discovered that protons deposit most of their energy right before coming to a stop, which is key to modern proton therapy for treating solid tumor cancers - they can pre-determine where exactly the proton releases its energy.
So, this is not a “theoretical” advantage. This “Bragg-Peak characteristic” (as it’s called) is a proven advantage over photons in the scientific community that later, someone said “Hey, maybe we can apply this in treating solid tumor cancers in order to reduce the entry-dose, scatter, and exit-dose that is inherent with photon radiation?”
These studies are alluding/concluding that science/physics is wrong; that the entry-dose, scatter, and exit-dose of proton & photon is similar. That requires explanation.