What is proton and heavy ion radiation therapy?
Proton and heavy ion radiation therapy is a radiation therapy technique in which particle rays consisting of protons or heavy ions are used as the treatment medium. Protons are the tiny particles that make up the nucleus of an atom; heavy ions are the nuclei of atoms with large atomic weights, such as carbon ions.
How does proton heavy ion technology work in treating cancer?
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Protons, the positively charged ions (H+) remaining after the removal of the electrons carried by the smallest-mass hydrogen atom, which is ranked first on the periodic table, are solid particles. As a positively charged particle, proton is accelerated to 70% of the speed of light by a large cyclotron or synchrotron, and enters the human body at a very high speed. Due to its fast speed, it has a very low chance to have an effect on normal tissues or cells in the body, when it reaches a specific part of the cancer cells, the speed suddenly decreases and stops, releasing the maximum energy and generating the Bragg peak, which kills the cancer cells, and at the same time effectively protects normal tissues and does no harm to the surrounding normal tissues.
Advantages of Proton and Heavy Ion Radiotherapy:
Compared with photon, proton and heavy ion radiotherapy has four obvious advantages.
The first toxic side effects are small.
Protons or heavy ions are accelerated to about 70% of the speed of light by a gas pedal, and the ionized rays are ejected into the body. Before reaching the tumor lesion, not much energy is released, but after reaching the lesion, the ray releases a large amount of energy in an instant, which kills the tumor, and then the ray stops abruptly. This phenomenon is called "Bragg peak" energy release trajectory, like "stereotactic blasting", which makes proton and heavy ion radiotherapy have a powerful tumor killing effect on tumor cells, while the damage to the surrounding normal tissues is significantly reduced to achieve the killing of tumors, but also This can achieve the purpose of killing the tumor without producing obvious radiological toxic side effects. It is because of such characteristics of proton and heavy ion radiation, which is relatively small to the normal tissues of human body, and achieves a more ideal effect of tumor treatment, which makes the tumor treatment to be able to "distinguish between the enemy and me", and no longer "injure the enemy a thousand times, but harm the enemy eight hundred times".
Secondly, the therapeutic effect is good.
Proton and heavy ion radiotherapy, especially heavy ion radiotherapy, such as carbon ions, has the ability to kill tumor cells three times as much as conventional photon radiotherapy, and the local control rate of tumor is high, even if it is a tumor resistant to treatment, it can also produce better killing effect, such as soft tissue tumors, malignant melanoma and so on.
The third course of treatment is short.
Generally speaking, the course of conventional radiation therapy is about 2 months, while the course of proton radiation is shortened to 1 month, and heavy ion radiation is even as short as 1-2 weeks.
Fourth non-invasive.
Proton or heavy ion therapy is non-invasive and painless. Anesthesia is generally not required, except in pediatric patients, making the treatment accessible to elderly patients with poor cardiopulmonary function who cannot tolerate anesthesia.
Limitations of Proton Heavy Ion Technology:
For tumors in the immediate vicinity of the stomach and intestines, such as gastric and intestinal cancers, it is not applicable due to the high energy level of the rays, which is prone to cause serious damage to the organs.
Meanwhile, it is a treatment for local tumors, and for tumors prone to distant metastases it must also be combined with systemic treatments, such as chemotherapy and biotargeting, to control distant metastases. In addition, proton and heavy ion radiotherapy is not suitable for patients with tumors that have developed multiple distant metastases.
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