Why Choose Proton Therapy

Advantages of proton therapy in the irradiation of digestive tract tumours compared to conventional radiotherapy

Proton therapy is gentler because it can reduce the exposure of surrounding tissues and organs to unwanted radiation and thus limit the risk of treatment-related complications. It enables the use of radiotherapy even in diseases (situations) that could not be treated with conventional radiotherapy.

• In oesophageal tumours, proton radiotherapy significantly reduces undesirable exposure of the heart and lungs to radiation.
• It minimises exposure of the urinary bladder, kidneys, small intestine and other organs in the abdominal cavity to radiation.
• It minimises the dose of radiation to the spinal cord.
• It allows reducing the number of fractions and shortening the irradiation time, which leads to further mitigation of the risk of various complications.
• It allows the delivery of a higher dose of radiation, thus increasing the chance of tumour destruction.

Based on global experience and long-term results in treated patients, it is clear that patients that undergo proton therapy have a higher quality of life compared to other therapies.

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The diagram shows the radiation dose distribution in the body when using proton vs. photon therapies.

It is apparent that the proton beam irradiates only the target volume (the area where the tumour is or was located), i.e. the radiation is targeted almost exclusively to the affected tissue. On the contrary, photon radiation, owing to its physical properties, significantly affects also the surrounding area of the healthy structure.