Oral cancer: proton vs photon radiation?

I am 10 days post 30 rounds of Proton Radiation to "cleanup" any cancer that may have been left behind from HPV16 base of tongue and Few Lymph nodes on one side of Neck . I had TORS surgery to remove tumor. l was very worried about going on a feed tubing , Dysphagia and Not being about to swallow (eat or drink). I started doing mouth,Neck, tongue and swallowing exercises prior to proton Radiation. If you have a Speech therapist they can help you with this. It was a struggle to eat during radiation and I FORCED myself. You will lose appetite and everything has no taste. However as far as today 10 day out of treatment. I can still eat and drink although what you would call a soft diet. Think eggs, cottage cheese, Milk, Smoothies, bologna, Boost, soups, etc. My taste buds are about 20% and seem to be coming back some. My mucositis is going away and Saliva production is slowing getting better. My hair has stopped falling out. Neck skin burns are about healed. My stamina is back to about 80% . I my opinion Proton is more targeted with less side effects. However, It is a battle as insurance companies do not want to pay for Proton when Photon is much cheaper.

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I am 10 days post 30 rounds of Proton Radiation to "cleanup" any cancer that may have been left behind from HPV16 base of tongue and Few Lymph nodes on one side of Neck . I had TORS surgery to remove tumor. l was very worried about going on a feed tubing , Dysphagia and Not being about to swallow (eat or drink). I started doing mouth,Neck, tongue and swallowing exercises prior to proton Radiation. If you have a Speech therapist they can help you with this. It was a struggle to eat during radiation and I FORCED myself. You will lose appetite and everything has no taste. However as far as today 10 day out of treatment. I can still eat and drink although what you would call a soft diet. Think eggs, cottage cheese, Milk, Smoothies, bologna, Boost, soups, etc. My taste buds are about 20% and seem to be coming back some. My mucositis is going away and Saliva production is slowing getting better. My hair has stopped falling out. Neck skin burns are about healed. My stamina is back to about 80% . I my opinion Proton is more targeted with less side effects. However, It is a battle as insurance companies do not want to pay for Proton when Photon is much cheaper.

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FYI-I was told by my Mayo rad oncologists that Mayo charges insurance companies the same rate for proton and photon even though the costs of proton are much higher. They belive that the efficacy of proton is much higher than photon and want to develop data to prove it and justify the treatment. we'll see.

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