Global democratisation of proton radiotherapy.

Susu Yan, Twalib A Ngoma, Wilfred Ngwa, Thomas R Bortfeld

Journal: The Lancet. Oncology 2023;24(6):e245-e254

PMID: 37269856

Full Text on Elsevier Science View on PubMed

Abstract

Proton radiotherapy is an advanced treatment option compared with conventional x-ray treatment, delivering much lower doses of radiation to healthy tissues surrounding the tumour. However, proton therapy is currently not widely available. In this Review, we summarise the evolution of proton therapy to date, together with the benefits to patients and society. These developments have led to an exponential growth in the number of hospitals using proton radiotherapy worldwide. However, the gap between the number of patients who should be treated with proton radiotherapy and those who have access to it remains large. We summarise the ongoing research and development that is contributing to closing this gap, including the improvement of treatment efficiency and efficacy, and advances in fixed-beam treatments that do not require an enormously large, heavy, and costly gantry. The ultimate goal of decreasing the size of proton therapy machines to fit into standard treatment rooms appears to be within reach, and we discuss future research and development opportunities to achieve this goal.

Address: Division of Radiation Biophysics, Department of Radiation Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: [email protected].; Department Clinical Oncology, Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.; Department of Radiation Oncology and Molecular Radiation Sciences, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA; Department of Information and Sciences, ICT University, Yaoundé, Cameroon.; Division of Radiation Biophysics, Department of Radiation Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.

DOI: 10.1016/S1470-2045(23)00184-5

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MeSH Terms: Humans, Protons, Proton Therapy, Neoplasms, Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted, Radiotherapy Dosage, Radiotherapy