Proton therapy for gastrointestinal malignancy
Proton therapy for gastrointestinal malignancy
Proton therapy can significantly reduce radiation exposure to organs at risk and healthy tissues which offers potential to reduce radiation-induced toxicities. There is a growing collection of clinical studies suggesting that proton therapy is effective for GI cancer patients, and may also improve the toxicity profile. This white paper aims to provide existing clinical data when considering treatment options that benefit patients the most.

What can you gain?
The improved dosimetry with proton therapy enables greater sparing of normal tissues and greater reduction in integral dose. This translates to the potential ability of escalating dose in the tumor while maintaining low toxicity, which may improve the therapeutic ratio of radiation treatment.
An increasing amount of data reported has shown that proton therapy has great potential to increase therapeutic tolerance for patients with GI malignancies. The possibility of decreasing radiation dose to organs at risk may also help facilitate chemotherapy dose escalation or allow for new chemotherapy combinations.
Proton therapy will play a decisive role in the context of ongoing intensified combined modality treatments for GI cancers. The following review presents the benefits of proton therapy in treating hepatocellular carcinoma, pancreatic cancer and esophageal cancer.
Reference to ongoing studies
Liver cancer
The expert's perspective
Useful documents, white papers and publications
Learn more about the benefits of proton therapy and find the latest studies in this IBA white paper.
IBA White paper: Treating gastrointestinal malignancy with proton therapy
General overview of the current practice, opportunities and challenges in gastrointestinal malignancy treatment