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Effects of radiation on healthy cells
Prostate Cancer | Last Active: Jul 9, 2023 | Replies (3)Comment receiving replies
I think it is why proton versus photon radiation is important to know about. There is less damage of radiation coming in and no radiation damage going out versus photon. What every you can do and/or treatment to reduce damage to healthy tissues and organs to me is just commont sense.
Phoenix and Rochester offer proton radiation treatment for prostrate cancer but Jacksonville does not. Jacksonville is building a new cancer institute which will have proton radiation. Hopefully it will have the same proton radiation treatments available for prostrate cancer that Rochester and Phoenix offer.
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Part of the problem with proton is it uses wider margins than the MRIdian. It does not have a built in mri so one uses fused images instead of real time. It also does not have automatic shutoff with its operation.
There is no trial that has been done comparing the two machines so as a patient, you are left with radiation in little or no out versus the aforementioned. I did see a theoretical study that concluded that if the proton therapy had a built in MRI, as the MRIdian does, that the proton therapy would be better. We as patients need more practical comparisons of these machines to help with the decision making process. It’s not enough to say the outcomes are the same and toxicity minimal. For those cancer centers that have both machines, other than the labor issue of one machine vs another, it would be interesting to find out why they bought one machine vs another.