Is Proton Therapy the Magic Bullet for Cancer?
Is proton therapy the ‘magic bullet’ for cancer? After decades of battling one of the world’s biggest killers, the treatment of cancer is still an inexact science.
Successful treatments such as chemotherapy work by killing the cancer cells, but they also destroy healthy tissue.
Health practitioners have been searching for a magic bullet that goes straight to the source of the cancer — and everything from monoclonal antibodies, which carry cancer drugs direct to cancer cells, to straight surgery to cut out tumors have been used with varying degrees of success.
In Belgium, one company is pioneering a new therapy that targets cancers with proton radiation. The machines cost as much as $125 million, but the company is developing a smaller system for hospitals.
Engineer and nuclear physicist Yves Jongen is pioneering a new therapy that targets cancers with proton radiation; a therapy that offers precision and minimal side effects.This new therapy offers precision and minimal side effects. The treatment involves generating a proton beam using what is called a cyclotron machine and piping it into a treatment room where patients get a targeted dose of radiation to kill their cancer cells.
According to experts, the patient feels nothing during treatment. Injury to normal tissue is reduced, and as a result, there are fewer side- effects following treatment, such as nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea. The patients experience a better quality of life during and after proton treatment.
However, the proton therapy only works for cancers that are localized; any cancer that’s spread throughout the body, such as leukemia (cancer of blood cells), the therapy does not work.
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