The first diagnosis treated at PTC are tumours of the paranasal sinuses (frontal sinus, area between the eyes). Conventional radiotherapy basically cannot irradiate these areas in the right way. This diagnosis makes up the largest group of our patients.
The second important group are patients with nasopharyngeal tumours – this is a rather specific diagnosis, occurring mainly in younger patients between 20 and 40 years of age. It affects the tissue that forms the posterior wall of the nasopharynx. These are relatively aggressive tumours, but they respond very well to treatment, the outlook for patients is very good, up to 85% will recover in the long term. This type of tumour is located in the middle of the skull, so the conventional photon technique is inappropriate; the late consequences arising in 4 to 5 years are of crucial importance.
Another group is tumours of the salivary glands and parotid glands; especially for this diagnosis, we take advantage of the fact that the tumour is usually located on the side of the head and superficially, so the proton stops at 2 to 3 cm and the rest of the face remains without radiation.
In terms of incidence, however, the last group of tumours that we treat in our centre has been growing very intensively in recent years, namely tumours of the tonsils and the root of the tongue. It mainly affects younger patients. This type of tumour is caused by the same virus responsible for cervical cancer in women, HPV 16.
Occasionally, ear tumours are also encountered at PTC, but these are diagnosed very rarely; the number of patients is usually in the single digits.
