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Kevin’s Proton Therapy Experience

Proton Therapy Patients Experience

Kevin Holmes received proton therapy prostate cancer treatments at Hampton University Proton Therapy Institute (HUPTI) after being diagnosed at the age of 54. 

“I received the very best care ! The HUPTI staff became my Hampton Roads family while I was away from my own. My quality of life never changed, and I was routinely active – morning to night. The only physical issue was sun burning on my hips, which should soon fade. I can now let others know cancer is NOT a death sentence.”
– Kevin Holmes

“The treatment was much easier than I could have ever possibly imagined. It was as simple as getting an X-ray,” said Holmes. “I was in and out within 30 minutes of when I pulled into the parking lot and when I left.”

HUPTI Kevin Holmes

What is Proton Therapy ?

Proton therapy is a much more targeted version of radiation therapy. Oncologists can use specific frequencies to narrowly direct a radiation beam into a tumor, increasing the strength of the treatment and sparing a larger portion of healthy cells around the tumor.

A secondary benefit of more accurately targeted radiation is the decreased risk of secondary malignancies developing as a result of radiation exposure. The reduced risk to healthy tissue also allows physicians to increase the radiation strength per session, resulting in the need for fewer procedures to deliver the same level of radiation treatment.

As a result, patients experience fewer side effects and suffer significantly less discomfort during and after the procedure. Some patients may experience minor skin irritation or hair loss at the treatment site, which is a small price to pay when compared to the side effects of other cancer treatment methods.

Proton therapy is not an all-day experience. Proton therapy sessions take minutes, not hours, and most patients are able to return to work or their daily routine immediately following their procedure.

Proton Therapy Can Treat Many Types of Cancer

The cancer treatment specialists at HUPTI can use proton therapy to treat:

  • Prostate Cancer
  • Breast Cancer
  • Brain and Spine Cancers
  • Head and Neck Cancers
  • Lung Cancer
  • Gastrointestinal Cancers
  • Ocular Cancer
  • Pediatric Cancer

HUPTI is the brainchild of Hampton University President Dr. William R. Harvey. The facility’s team has treated more than 3,500 patients to date, and they’re ready to consult with you.

“Don’t let what your preconceived notions are stop you from going forth and asking questions with these people because these people made my life so simple with the process that I really didn’t feel like I was going through anything difficult”

– Kevin Holmes

 

International patients who recently received a cancer diagnosis and are looking for less invasive and disruptive options can talk to SAH Care to arrange consultation and treatment at HUPTI.

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Hampton University Proton Therapy Institute 2021

Dr. Allan Thornton

Take a virtual tour of Hampton University Proton Therapy Institute and listen to Dr Allan Thornton explaining this cutting-edge cancer treatment.

2021 Virtual Tour of HUPTI

Because we use charged particles as our form of radiation, we can control the range of the beam. That results in treating about 70% less normal tissues than with any form of X-ray therapy currently practiced.

We treat a widening number of tumors. Essentially we treat any solid tumor that can be treated with conventional X-ray based therapy, but  with significantly less side effects to normal tissue.

We treat essentially all solid tumors that we normally treat with radiation therapy with proton therapy. Those are specifically : brain tumors – in particular brain tumors, posterior fossa tumors, medulloblastoma – we also treat a significant number of prostate patients, rectal cancer patients, lung cancer, women with breast cancer – particularly the left side of breast cancer where we can spare the heart -, and we even treat some skin tumors and lymph node tumors – lymphomas – more successfully and with much less side effects than with conventional therapy.

— Dr Allan Thornton

International patients can contact SAH Care to see if Proton Therapy is right for them.

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The Proton Therapy Cancer Treatment Experience

Proton Therapy Patients Experience

Proton therapy is a revolutionary cancer treatment alternative that can spare patients from the worst aspects of traditional cancer treatments.

Hampton Proton Therapy Institute

One of the many scary aspects of a cancer diagnosis are the treatment options. Most adults know someone who has gone through chemotherapy, invasive surgery or radiation treatments. Those treatments can be arduous, and they take a toll on patients and their families. Proton therapy is a revolutionary cancer treatment alternative that can spare patients from the worst aspects of those traditional cancer treatments.

Patients receiving Proton Therapy at HUPTI

Kevin Holmes received proton therapy prostate cancer treatments at Hampton University Proton Therapy Institute (HUPTI) after being diagnosed at the age of 54. Holmes, who is from Washington DC, drove about two and a half hours just to receive treatment at HUPTI after receiving a consultation with Dr. Allan Thornton.

“I believed so strongly in Hampton University Proton Therapy Institute that I passed on two treatment centers minutes from my home to go there. I received the very best care! The HUPTI staff became my Hampton Roads family while I was away from my own. 

My quality of life never changed, and I was routinely active – morning to night. The only physical issue was sun burning on my hips, which should soon fade. I can now let others know cancer is NOT a death sentence.”
     – Kevin Holmes

One of the other benefits of proton therapy was the ease and speed of each session. “The treatment was much easier than I could have ever possibly imagined. It was as simple as getting an X-ray,” said Holmes. “I was in and out within 30 minutes of when I pulled into the parking lot and when I left.”

Credit: Hampton University Proton Therapy Institute – Kevin Holmes

Why Does Proton Therapy Offer an Easier Treatment Experience?

Many of the negative side effects frequently associated with traditional cancer treatments stem from an inability to narrowly target a tumor and cancerous cells.

Chemotherapy is a systemic treatment that effects the whole body. Traditional radiation therapy is more targeted but still effects a significant amount of healthy tissue surrounding a tumor. Even surgery involves cutting away healthy tissue around a tumor to ensure the entirety of the cancer is removed.

Proton therapy is a much more targeted version of radiation therapy. Oncologists can use specific frequencies to narrowly direct a radiation beam into a tumor, increasing the strength of the treatment and sparing a larger portion of healthy cells around the tumor.

A secondary benefit of more accurately targeted radiation is the decreased risk of secondary malignancies developing as a result of radiation exposure. The reduced risk to healthy tissue also allows physicians to increase the radiation strength per session, resulting in the need for fewer procedures to deliver the same level of radiation treatment.

As a result, patients experience fewer side effects and suffer significantly less discomfort during and after the procedure. Some patients may experience minor skin irritation or hair loss at the treatment site, which is a small price to pay when compared to the side effects of other cancer treatment methods.

Proton therapy is not an all-day experience. Proton therapy sessions take minutes, not hours, and most patients are able to return to work or their daily routine immediately following their procedure.

Proton Therapy Can Treat Many Types of Cancer

The cancer treatment specialists at HUPTI can use proton therapy to treat:

  • Prostate Cancer
  • Breast Cancer
  • Brain and Spine Cancers
  • Head and Neck Cancers
  • Lung Cancer
  • Gastrointestinal Cancers
  • Ocular Cancer
  • Pediatric Cancer

HUPTI is the brainchild of Hampton University President Dr. William R. Harvey. The facility’s team has treated more than 3,500 patients to date, and they’re ready to consult with you.

International patients who recently received a cancer diagnosis and are looking for less invasive and disruptive options can talk to SAH Care to arrange consultation and treatment at HUPTI.

Contact details

from 13newsnow

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Proton Therapy for breast cancer patients : Focused Treatment, Fewer Side Effects

Proton Therapy for Breast Cancer Patients

The Hampton University Proton Therapy Institute offers radiation therapy for breast cancer patients that often spares healthy tissue. 

Registered Nurse Donna Sternberg talked about why folks whose Oncologists have prescribed radiation should consider treatment at Hampton’s state-of-the-art center.

Proton Therapy is the most advanced method of radiation therapy used to destroy cancer cells. The team at Hampton Proton Therapy Institute (HUPTI) has made significant stride in using proton treatment for breast cancer. Breast cancer is a complicated and diverse disease. Some patients will receive first chemotherapy and/or surgery, and then external beam radiation therapy. Compared to other conventional external beam radiation technics, the proton beam can be programmed to reach a specified depth, and therefore not expose healthy tissues to unnecessary radiation. Treatment itself is a daily treatment. On an average there are 4 to 6 weeks of daily treatment, from Monday to Friday. We book patients every 15 minutes. The actual duration of the daily session is quite short. For breast cancer specifically, there are few side effects, if any. There is some skin irritation, as there will be with any radiation therapy. But in general our patients are able to continue their normal activities, with no interruption and no side effect.

How Proton Therapy Improves Breast Cancer Treatment

Proton Therapy has become a viable option for breast cancer patients because it limits radiation exposure. Traditional radiation therapy cannot be narrowly targeted and as a result, it carries the risk of damaging the lungs and heart, and causing secondary malignancies. It also commonly causes cosmetic damage, rib fractures and skin deterioration. Proton Therapy helps to avoid those risks by delivering powerful doses of radiation to an extremely precise treatment site. It is a powerful weapon in the battle against breast cancer, that is gentler for the patient and improves quality of life during treatment.

Breast Cancers Treated with Proton Therapy :

  • Early Stage Breast Cancer
  • Locally Advanced Breast Cancer (stage II and III)
  • Ductal carcinoma in-situ
  • Triple-negative Breast Cancer
  • Lobular Carcinoma

Read the latest scientific publications about Proton Therapy for Breast Cancer

Proton pencil beam scanning reduces secondary cancer risk in breast cancer patients with internal mammary chain involvement compared to photon radiotherapy

Cartechini et al.
👉 “Our work indicates a benefit from the use of Protontherapy (PT) in Breast Cancer (BC) patients with nodal involvement. When coupled with the lower normal tissue complication probability (NTCP) expected for distal Organs at Risk (i.e. heart, lung), this represents valuable information for the establishment of cost-effective patient selection criteria for BC treatment. Specifically, we show that the gain offered by PT is maximized when the target volume includes internal-mammary-nodes (IMN). In this setting and especially for younger patients, PT might be an alternative to VMAT irradiation.”

Feasibility study: spot-scanning proton arc therapy (SPArc) for left-sided whole breast radiotherapy

Sheng Chang et al.

👉 “Conventional protontherapy (IMPT or Passive-scattering) could reduce the dose of the heart and LAD in left-side breast cancer patients compared to the photon radiotherapy technique in the high cardiac doses sparing. This study found that the new proton treatment technique, SPArc, could further reduce the D1 of heart and LAD which might mitigate the probability of heart acute and late toxicities (…)
Our feasibility study finds that the technology of SPArc can substantially improve not only the heart and LAD sparing but also the lung sparing in comparison with vIMPT. Previous studies have confirmed that proton therapy can significantly reduce the V500(cGy) and V2000(cGy) of the ipsilateral lung by nearly 50% compared to traditional 3DCRT and IMRT. This study found that SPArc plans further reduced all dose-volume parameters while providing a reduced or similarly high-dose radiation volume with IMPT in left-sided WBRT”

Breast Cancer Survival Is Significantly Decreased Among Premenopausal Women Previously Treated With Radiation for Childhood or AYA Cancer

Jo Cavallo

👉 “Breast cancer–specific survival is significantly decreased among all survivors of childhood and AYA cancer treated with radiotherapy that develop a secondary breast cancer, including women with good prognostic features. Therefore, we may need to consider alternative and even more aggressive treatment in what were considered low-risk populations previously”

Second Cancer Risk After Primary Cancer Treatment With Three-Dimensional Conformal, Intensity-Modulated, or Proton Beam Radiation Therapy

Xiang M, Chng DT, Pollom EL

👉 “The risk of a second cancer diagnosis after primary cancer treatment was similar after intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) versus 3-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3DCRT), while proton beam radiotherapy (PBRT) was correlated with a lower risk of second cancer diagnosis”

Proton Therapy in 2020: Where We Are and How We Got Here

Minesh Mehta

👉 “The precision and accuracy of protontherapy treatments have vastly improved by incorporating these technologies into the daily workflow. With normal tissue spared from unnecessary exposure to radiation doses, patients experience fewer short- and long-term side effects and can enjoy a better quality of life.”

The risk for developing a secondary cancer after breast radiation therapy: Comparison of photon and proton techniques

Paganetti et al.

👉 “Conventional (3DCRT) techniques led to the lowest estimated risks of, thyroid and esophageal secondary cancers while Protontherapy PBS demonstrated a benefit for secondary lung and contralateral breast cancer risks, with the highest risks overall associated with VMAT techniques.”

Proton Reirradiation: Expert Recommendations for Reducing Toxicities and Offering New Chances of Cure in Patients With Challenging Recurrence Malignancies

Simone et al.

👉 “The high conformality and lack of exit dose with protontherapy offer significant advantages for reirradiation. By decreasing dose to adjacent normal tissues, proton therapy can more safely deliver definitive instead of palliative doses of reirradiation, more safely dose escalate reirradiation treatment, and more safely allow for concurrent systemic therapy in the reirradiation setting. “

Cardiotoxicity and Radiation Therapy: A Review of Clinical Impact in Breast and Thoracic Malignancies

Elizabeth M. Nichols et al.

👉 “All radiation oncologists should be aware of Radiation-Induced Cardiotoxicity (RIC), with a call to action to support advanced delivery techniques”

👉 “Based on available data, a clear relationship exists between whole-heart dose and risk of cardiac events following RT for breast cancer with a significant increase in risk for left-sided breast cancer patients (…) Patients, with a particular focus on those with left-sided disease, should be evaluated for cardiac-sparing techniques, including but not limited to deep-inspiration breath hold (DIBH), gating, prone positioning, and/or proton therapy, to achieve the lowest dose possible.”

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“…and finally Mama is back”

Noha’s journey started in 2015. Her whole life changed, from being a healthy fit young Mom to discovering she had a brain tumor.

She was wondering whether she would see her 2 little girls grow.

Her father heard and read about Proton Therapy, a safe form of radiation, with minimal to no side effect. They searched, asked, and found that the better place would be Hampton University Proton Therapy Institute, in Virginia, USA.

They headed to the United States from the Middle-East, and were greeted by SAH Care team who had arranged all appointments.

Dr Thornton explained all details about her medical condition, and made sure Noha received the best medical care. Noha underwent surgeries and 30 fractions of Proton Therapy.

She recovered and flew back home. Now her vision is getting better and she takes care of her children and family.

“The 30 sessions of Proton Therapy were painless and quick. The therapists who were with me every day during my sessions were so supportive. I am so pleased I went there and will definitely recommend HUPTI and the SAH Care Team”

Today, 5 years after the Proton Therapy Treatment, her lovely 10-year old daughter tells her story in the sweetest and most rewarding video.

Cancer diagnosis and treatment can be devastating for the patient and for his/her family. Psychosocial support is key, especially when the family needs to travel abroad. At SAH Care, we are  aware of this potential impacts on families, and our patients coordinators do their outmost to meet the health and psychological needs of the families.

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April 2020 : what did we learn ?

Last month, the impact of Covid-19 on cancer treatment has been discussed in many articles. Several more studies have also been published showing the benefits of Proton Therapy for Pediatric Ewing Sarcoma, Head & Neck, Oropharyngeal, Breast, Lung, Esophageal, and Prostate cancers, and for re-irradiation.

Read our selection.

COVID-19 : global consequences for oncology

This pandemic will undoubtedly change the way we work. But the oncology community is relentlessly devoted to the patients, and we will certainly weather this unprecedented storm !


Editorial| Volume 21, ISSUE 4, P467, April 01, 2020

COVID-19: global consequences for oncology
The Lancet Oncology

Challenges posed by COVID-19 to children with cancer

⚠️ Let’s get ready !
Let’s work all together and let’s optimize all our resources to make sure our young patients receive the right treatment at the right time !
👉 “The coming months will pose many further challenges, which might include accessibility to scarce resources, effects on drug manufacture and supply, and the effect on care of children with cancer from low-income and middle-income countries. Continued collaboration among the international pediatric oncology community is required to get through such uncertain times.”

Rishi S Kotecha
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/article/PIIS1470-2045(20)30205-9/fulltext


Treating childhood cancer : a necessity not a choice

“Inadequate access to care, late diagnosis, financial toxicity, and poor-quality care are ubiquitous barriers for children with cancer worldwide and have a crucial impact on survival outcomes. Owing to population growth and inequitable access to cancer care, 80% of the global cancer burden–in terms of both incidence and mortality is estimated to fall on children in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs)—a humanitarian situation that demands immediate attention.”

Allison Landman
David Collingridge
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/article/PIIS1470-2045(20)30145-5/fulltext


Pediatric Ewing Sarcoma : Depending on the chest wall subregion, proton treatment has the potential to minimize pulmonary, cardiac, renal, and hepatic toxicity, as well as second malignancies.

👉 Target conformity and homogeneity indices are generally better for the IMPT plans with beam aperture.
👉 Doses to the lung, heart, and liver for all patients are substantially lower with the 3DPT and IMPT plans than those of IMRT plans.
👉 In the IMPT plans with large spot without beam aperture, some OAR doses are higher than those of 3DCPT plans. The integral dose of each photon IMRT plan ranged from 2 to 4.3 times of proton plans.
👉 Compared to IMRT, proton therapy delivers significant lower dose to almost all OARs and much lower healthy tissue integral dose. Compared to 3DCPT, IMPT with small beam spot size or using beam aperture has better dose conformity to the target.
👉 Treatment plan using the smaller beam spot with beam apertures provided the best combination of target coverage and OAR sparing.

Impact of different treatment techniques for pediatric Ewing sarcoma of the chest wall: IMRT, 3DCPT, and IMPT with/without beam aperture
Zhong Su et al.
https://aapm.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/acm2.12870#.XpmY6trKGJk.linkedin

For patients with HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancer, the predicted risk of secondary malignant neoplasms (SMN) is significantly reduced statistically for treatment with Intensity Modulated Proton Therapy (IMPT) compared with Intensity Modulated photon Radiation Therapy (IMRT).

👉 Although both modalities afforded good target coverage, IMPT plans were able to achieve improved healthy-tissue sparing : significant reductions in mean mandible, contralateral parotid, lung and skin organ equivalent doses with IMPT compared with IMRT plans (P < .001).
👉 This reduction in integral dose led to a predicted decrease of 436 additional cases of SMNs for every 10 000 patients/y (or 4 per 100 patients/y) for treatment with protons instead of photons

Predicted Secondary Malignancies following Proton versus Photon Radiation for Oropharyngeal Cancers – Jain et al
https://www.theijpt.org/doi/pdf/10.14338/IJPT-19-00076.1

Oropharyngeal cancer : proton therapy improves Patient-reported outcomes

👉 Intensity Modulated Proton Therapy is associated with improved Patient-reported outcomes, reduced percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy -tube placement, hospitalization, and narcotic requirements.
👉 Mucositis, dysphagia, and pain were decreased with IMPT.
👉 Benefits were predominantly seen in patients treated definitively or with chemoradiotherapy.

Comparative analysis of acute toxicities and patient reported outcomes between intensity-modulated proton therapy (IMPT) and volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) for the treatment of oropharyngeal cancer
Manzar et al.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167814020301195

Particle therapies, such as proton therapy or carbon ion therapy, proposed to reduce the burden of xerostomia in patients following chemoradiotherapy for HNSCC

👉 Particle therapies are especially able to reduce moderate to low dose exposure to the oral cavity (minor salivary glands), submandibular glands, and parotid glands with similar target coverage based on the physical properties of the Bragg peak energy deposition of these approaches.

Sticky stuff: xerostomia in patients undergoing head and neck radiotherapy-prevalence, prevention, and palliative care.
Snider JW 3rd, Paine CC 2nd Annals of Palliative Medicine, 25 Mar 2020 10.21037/apm.2020.02.36


Be aware of Radiation-Induced Cardiotoxicity (RIC), and support advanced delivery techniques

👉 Breast cancer
Based on available data, a clear relationship exists between whole-heart dose and risk of cardiac events following Radiotherapy for breast cancer with a significant increase in risk for left-sided breast cancer patients (…) Patients, with a particular focus on those with left-sided disease, should be evaluated for cardiac-sparing techniques, including but not limited to deep-inspiration breath hold (DIBH), gating, prone positioning, and/or proton therapy, to achieve the lowest dose possible.
👉 Thoracic Malignancies (Lung and Esophageal cancers)
Because of the anatomic proximity of these cancers to the heart, however, radiomodulatory techniques such as DIBH or gating may not be as helpful in reducing heart dose; thus, other techniques, such as proton therapy, may be needed.

Nichols et al.
Cardiotoxicity and Radiation Therapy: A Review of Clinical Impact in Breast and Thoracic Malignancies
https://appliedradiationoncology.com/articles/cardiotoxicity-and-radiation-therapy-a-review-of-clinical-impact-in-breast-and-thoracic-malignancies

For locally advanced esophageal cancer, ProtonTherapy (PBT) reduced the risk and severity of Adverse Eventss compared with IMRT while maintaining similar progression-free survival (PFS)

👉 The posterior mean total toxicity burden (TTB) was 2.3 times higher for IMRT (39.9; 95% highest posterior density interval, 26.2-54.9) than (PBT) (17.4; 10.5-25.0).
👉 The mean postoperative complications (POCs) score was 7.6 times higher for IMRT (19.1; 7.3-32.3) versus PBT (2.5; 0.3-5.2).
👉 The posterior probability that mean TTB was lower for PBT compared with IMRT was 0.9989, which exceeded the trial’s stopping boundary of 0.9942 at the 67% interim analysis.
👉 The 3-year PFS rate (50.8% v 51.2%) and 3-year overall survival rates (44.5% v 44.5%) were similar.

Randomized Phase IIB Trial of Proton Beam Therapy Versus Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy for Locally Advanced Esophageal Cancer
Lin SH, et al. J Clin Oncol. 2020;doi:10.1200/JCO.19.02503.


Re-irradiation with proton therapy is a safe and effective treatment in patients with recurrent glioblastoma

Proton therapy does not negatively effect on health-related quality of life (HRQOL), but rather it seems to preserve HRQOL until the time of disease progression :
👉 The treatment was associated with improvement or stability in most of the preselected HRQOL domains.
👉 Global health improved over time with a maximum difference of six points between baseline and 3-months follow-up.
👉 Social functioning and motor dysfunction improved over time with a maximum difference of eight and two points, respectively.
👉 Non-significant decrease in cognitive and emotional functioning.
👉 Fatigue remained stable during the analysis such as the other preselected domains.

Proton therapy re-irradiation preserves health-related quality of life in large recurrent glioblastoma
Scartoni et al.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00432-020-03187-w


The high conformality and lack of exit dose with proton therapy offer significant advantages for reirradiation

👉 By decreasing dose to adjacent normal tissues, proton therapy can more safely deliver definitive instead of palliative doses of reirradiation, more safely dose escalate reirradiation treatment, and more safely allow for concurrent systemic therapy in the reirradiation setting.

Proton Reirradiation: Expert Recommendations for Reducing Toxicities and Offering New Chances of Cure in Patients With Challenging Recurrence Malignancies
Simone et al.

Rectal Hydrogel Spacer Improves Late Gastrointestinal Toxicity

👉 compared with rectal balloon immobilization, treatment with the hydrogel spacer significantly reduced the risk of clinically relevant (grade 2+), late rectal bleeding and was associated with a significantly lower decrease in patient-reported bowel quality of life
👉 “the rectal-sparing benefit of the hydrogel spacer, particularly for reducing late rectal bleeding, was even greater than expected. These findings can hold interest for urologists who counsel patients about their treatment options for localized prostate cancer,” added Dr. Ellis, professor and vice-chair of urology, University of Washington, Seattle.

Dinh TT et al.
Rectal Hydrogel Spacer Improves Late Gastrointestinal Toxicity Compared to Rectal Balloon Immobilization After Proton Beam Radiation Therapy for Localized Prostate Cancer: A Retrospective Observational Study.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32035187

Prostate cancer : Hydrogel spacer reduce the rectal dose

👉 Significant rectal dose reduction (P < 0.001) between the treatment plans on pre- and post-CT images were achieved for all modalities for D50%, D20% and D2%.
👉 In particular, the dose reduction of high-dose (D2%) ranges were : −40.61 ± 11.19 for proton therapy −32.44 ± 5.51 for CK −25.90 ± 9.89 for HT −13.63 ± 8.27 for VMAT −8.06 ± 4.19% for 3DCRT
👉 The results of this study demonstrated that all external radiotherapy modalities with hydrogel spacer could reduce the rectal dose.”

Comparison of rectal dose reduction by a hydrogel spacer among 3D conformal radiotherapy (3DCRT), volumetric-modulated arc therapy (VMAT), helical tomotherapy (HT), CyberKnife (CK) and proton therapy – Saito et al.
Journal of Radiation Research, rraa013, https://lnkd.in/dU9-Zcw

Figure : Typical dose distribution of SO(−) and SO(+) and the results of five modalities: (a) 3DCRT, (b) VMAT, (c) HT, (d) CK and (e) proton. The contour of the orange color illustrates the rectum.

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Takeaway from BJR Proton Therapy special feature

Targeting cancer stem cells: protons versus photons – Dini et al.

👉 preclinical data suggest that protons and photons differ in their biological effects on cancer stem cells, with protons offering potential advantages, although the heterogeneity of cancer stem cells and the different proton irradiation modalities make the comparison of the results not so easy. 

Is there a role for arcing techniques in proton therapy ? – Carabe-Fernandez et al.

👉 although Proton Arc Therapy (PAT) may not produce better physical dose distributions than intensity modulated proton therapy, the radiobiological considerations associated with particular PAT techniques could offer the possibility of an increased therapeutic index.

Proton minibeams—a springboard for physics, biology and clinical creativity – Avraham Dilmanian et al.

👉 Proton minibeam therapy (PMBT) is a form of spatially fractionated radiotherapy wherein broad beam radiation is replaced with segmented minibeams—either parallel, planar minibeam arrays generated by a multislit collimator or scanned pencil beams that converge laterally at depth to create a uniform dose layer at the tumor. By doing so, the spatial pattern of entrance dose is considerably modified while still maintaining tumor dose and efficacy. Recent studies using computational modeling, phantom experiments, in vitro and in vivo preclinical models, and early clinical feasibility assessments suggest that unique physical and biological attributes of PMBT can be exploited for future clinical benefit

FLASH and minibeams in radiation therapy: the effect of microstructures on time and space and their potential application to protontherapy – Mazal et al.

👉 the combination of FLASH and minibeams using proton beams, in spite of their complexity, may help to optimize the benefits of several or all the reviewed aspects, through the following concepts:
(1)  the intrinsic advantages of protons to reduce the integral mid and low doses, will be volumetrically combined in synergy with the FLASH and minibeam effects as a whole;
(2)  to reduce mid and high equivalent doses in critical organs around the tumour volume using the FLASH effect with high dose rates achievable with proton beams, both with passive or pencil beam approaches;
(3) to reduce healthy tissue complications by the minibeams space modulation in every beam path, where protons can be focalized with a steep penumbra and hence a high peak to valley ratio;
(4) to deliver an homogeneous dose to the target at any depth using the multiple scattering of proton minibeams in depth, and/or with multiple fields, or even setting a controlled inhomogeneous “vertex” doses escalation approach, optimizing intensity modulated proton therapy with robust solutions;
(5) to modify present approaches of immunological responses by the combination of concentration of lattice doses in very short time with a slight increase in LET, and the microstructure in time and space of both effects and
(6) to deliver single or hypofractionated treatments in very short time per fraction, facilitating the treatment of moving organs, specially when using pencil beam approaches and the associated risk of interplay effects, as well as the optimal use of minibeams with minimal risk of movement during the fraction.
Proton beams have in consequence one of the highest potentials to optimize the use of FLASH and Minibeams effects in radiation therapy, individually or in a synergistic combination.

Re-irradiation with protons or heavy ions with focus on head and neck, skull base and brain malignancies – Seidensaal et al.

👉 Re-irradiation can offer a potentially curative solution in case of progression after initial therapy; however, a second course of radiotherapy can be associated with an increased risk of severe side-effects. Particle therapy with protons and especially carbon ions spares surrounding tissue better than most photon techniques, thus it is of high potential for re-irradiation. Irradiation of tumors of the brain, head and neck and skull base involves several delicate risk organs, e.g. optic system, brainstem, salivary gland or swallowing muscles. Adequate local control rates with tolerable side-effects have been described for several tumors of these locations as meningioma, adenoid cystic carcinoma, chordoma or chondrosarcoma and head and neck tumors.

Reduced radiation-induced toxicity by using proton therapy for the treatment of oropharyngeal cancer – Meijer et al.

👉 proton therapy results in lower dose levels in multiple organs at risk, which translates into reduced acute toxicity (i.e. up to 3 months after radiotherapy), while preserving tumour control. Next to reducing mucositis, tube feeding, xerostomia and distortion of the sense of taste, protons can improve general well-being by decreasing fatigue and nausea. Proton therapy results in decreased rates of tube feeding dependency and severe weight loss up to 1 year after radiotherapy, and may decrease the risk of radionecrosis of the mandible.

Photons or protons for reirradiation in (non-)small cell lung cancer: Results of the multicentric ROCOCO in silico study – Troost et al.

👉 IMPT was able to statistically significantly decrease the radiation doses to the OARs. IMPT was superior in achieving the highest tumour dose while also decreasing the dose to the organs at risk.

Paediatric proton therapy – Thomas et al.

👉 Along with high cure rates, the rate of (late) toxicities is reduced using this radiotherapy modality

Articles cited above and many more are available in Proton therapy special feature, The British Journal of Radiology 2020 93:1107 

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Daily anesthesia and Proton Therapy

Proton Therapy is unique in its accuracy and in its heightened ability to avoid damage to healthy cells or tissues during treatment. Because Proton Therapy precisely targets the tumor, it requires exact patients positioning. While the procedure itself is painless, the immobilization constraints may necessitate the provision of sedation or anesthesia for children, during simulation and treatment, to ensure patient safety.

This procedure might sound frightening, but watch Zahra, she has given us another great lesson here !

Having already received 20 fractions, she is still happy to come every day to the Hampton Proton Therapy Centre to get her treatment.

Zahra is a shy 7-year old girl diagnosed with medulloblastoma on September 2019. Her presenting symptoms included ataxia, nystagmus, and headaches. She quickly underwent a surgery to remove most of her brain tumor, and a shunt was placed during the resection due to papilledema and evidence of hydrocephalus at diagnosis.

On post-operative imaging, a 2 cm residual disease was identified. Her mother noted some right-sided motor weakness post-operatively and posterior fossa syndrome. By November 2019, Zahra started weekly chemotherapy and had been referred to SAH Care for Proton Therapy.

Zahra traveled to the US with her parents and has been treated by our Dr Allan Thornton at the Hampton University Proton Therapy Institute. She came to the centre every day from Monday to Friday for 1 hour to receive her recommended total of 33 fractions. And every day she received a light anesthesia to ensure she didn’t move during the treatment.

Zahra had elected Walter, our Anesthesia Nurse, as her new best friend.  Every day, they were walking together along the corridor to fetch  Zahra’s anesthesia stretcher. Singing, playing, and laughing.

Zahra successfully completed her treatment in Hampton and went back home. Approximately 2 months after completion of proton therapy, all symptoms are currently resolved per Zahra’s mother.

When we saw her in February 2020, Zahra appeared to be recovering well and no longer complained of any symptom. She plays well and seems to have few current limitations to her activity.

Thank you Zahra for this lesson in courage and for your trust and confidence in our team !