Proton therapy for the treatment of prostate cancer

Abstract

Treatment using proton beam has advantages over X-rays due to its physical characteristics, which allow for dose escalation of the tumor with less scatter radiation dose to the surrounding tissues. There have been multiple published reports showing excellent clinical outcomes after treatment with proton therapy for prostate cancer. However, there continues to be significant controversy regarding the clinical advantage of proton therapy over using X-rays with intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) as there have been no randomized trials comparing the two treatments reported. This chapter will summarize the physics of the proton therapy and the recent technical advances in the delivery of the proton beam, review the clinical results, and describe the treatment protocol used at our institution for the use of proton therapy in the treatment of prostate cancer patients.