What Are The Advantages And Disadvantages Of Proton Therapy

From surgery to radium exposure to such extremes as radiation therapy, as doctors’ knowledge of the varying types of cancer, and the expansion of medical research regarding cancer has changed, so has the preferred method of treatment. Doctors and researchers dedicated to studying cancer have led to a greater understanding of cancer development; consequently the development of treatments and cures that are more effective, less harmful, have fewer side effects, and in some cases serve to prevent the spread of cancer.

Radiation therapy can be used anywhere in the body to treat any kind of cancer. Depending on what type of radiation therapy, it can have some side effects. The most common ones include fatigue, hair loss near the treated area, and skin darkening in the area exposed to a beam of radiation. ("Radiation Therapy for Cancer,” 1) There are also safety concerns that patients have when they are treated with radiation therapy. Many people that receive radiation therapy treatment, worry about exposing family and love ones to radiation, as well as the side effects. Radiation effects on the normal tissues are divided into acute and chronic effects (Schreiber). Acute effects occur during the course of therapy and during the post therapy period (approximately 2-3 weeks after the completion of a course of irradiation) (Schreiber).

Cancer is an incurable and unpredictable disease that, if left untreated, will likely result in death for the men, women, and children who must fight it. Sadly, approximately 36% of people will develop cancer during their lifetime, and of that percentage, fewer than 15% will survive, according to the National Cancer Institute. Along with surgery and chemotherapy, radiation is one of the few known methods for treating cancer, but it does not come without harmful side effects. While radiation therapy is currently a proven method for treating cancer, dangers to patients often outweigh its benefits, therefore a safer method for effectively treating and ultimately curing cancer.

Therapeutic nuclear medicine is used in many different ways to help and treat patients when they are fighting cancer or other diseases. Doctors will take the steps to do whatever they can to make sure that the patient will survive or at least achieve improvement in their health to some degree. When a patient is undergoing surgery to remove the cancer cells, the doctors will often have them go through radiation beforehand to shrink the cancer or tumor down to a size that is easier to remove and to ensure they are not removing more than necessary. Often during surgery, the surgeons will again treat the patient with radiation while they are open so that the radiation is hitting the direct tumor or cancer cells being targeted. Another benefit is that it provides the radiation treatment without having to direct it through the skin again. This reduces the amount of radiation that the patient is getting to a certain degree. Once the surgery is over, the patient will often have to continue with more treatments to make sure that, if anything was missed, it will be attacked by the radiation and be prevented from spreading. Eliminating the cancerous cells can often take more than one type of medical therapy, and it can often take multiple treatments (Radiation

The process of radiation therapy uses small amounts of very high-energy radiation to destroy the cancerous cells, making them unable to reproduce. "About 60% of all patients with cancer receive radiation therapy for curative intent, tumor control, or palliation of

These days the treatment of cancer has taken all encompassing ways. The doctors can opt for removing the tumors surgically, injecting the chemicals to destroy the cancer cells or utilize the radiation therapy. Various experiments are carried out clinically to aim the cancer cells in a better manner. Though, there are people who promote a different path of treating the cancer, the natural way.

The first therapy treatment, radiation: “Radiation is local treatment administered by specialized physicians known as radiation oncologist. It is given with a large machine called a linear accelerator that converts radioactive particles into a high-energy radiation beam that is used to treat a specific, well-defined area of your body”(Link, Forsthoff, and Waisman 81). Radiation puts cancer cells into death cycle. But radiation still have own side effect: “The skin around the area receiving radiation may begin to look tanned or sunburned” (Pat and Levine 100-01). Beside the skin will look tanned, the daily trip to the hospital or cancer center can be tiring, and if the patient tired, the body generally weak. Moreover, if the doctor does radiation after surgery, the

Prostate tumors typically require high doses of radiation to treat and because of their location, targeting them can be especially challenging. Due to the radiation to healthy tissues around prostate tumors can raise the risk of erectile dysfunction due to decreased testosterone levels, as well as urinary and rectal problems and gastrointestinal disorders. So all of these treatments comes with many risks/side effects and cannot guarantee that the radiation will eliminate everything, if prostate cancer comes back after radiation therapy, a second round of treatment with X-ray radiation may be too risky. This can lead to a difficult choice between giving less-than-optimal dose to the tumor which reduces the chance of a cure or give the tumor an ideal dose to with a higher risk of radiation to healthy tissues but greater chance of treatment and which type of treatment you would choose. There are many type of treatments depending on how early you catch the cancer or how advance it has become. Here in the US the most common was x-ray therapy and the most un-common was proton therapy. There were many benefits of advanced proton therapy treating prostate cancer include higher cure rates. In many cases, advanced proton therapy allows doctors to more selectively deliver high-dose radiation to cancerous prostate gland cells,

Radiation therapy is the ionization of atoms in tissues resulting in formation of highly reactive radicals in a well-defined, restricted volume (1). In other words, ionizing radiations are used to eradicate tumors and at the same time preserve structure and function of normal tissue. A limitation is prevented from being a problem. If bone marrow or neuronal cells are destroyed or injured, they do not regenerate. However, with radiation therapy, these cells are often saved from injury or destruction, unless the tumor is infecting bone marrow or neuronal cells. Today, radiation therapy is the most popular type of cancer therapy in use. It is used to treat one-half to two-thirds of all cancers, which translates to more than ten percent of the population

Radiation comes in different forms and is around us all day sometimes dangerous other times not. Radiation can be used under various categories such as communication, science and medical usage. The main focus surrounding these groups is medical because it is used to findings, test and analyze both treatments and research. Radiation uses X-rays and gamma rays for medical use. For example, X- rays are used identify if bones are fracture or broken. X-rays is usually used during radiology with specialized equipment like computerized tomography, cardiology, mammography and magnetic resonance imagining. Radiation is also used for treatment of diseases or cancer known as therapy. Oncology

More than 1400 Australians die from liver cancer each year and a third of those diagnosed die within a month of diagnosis. Radiotherapy is used to treat cancer, slow its growth or relieve symptoms. It uses radiation to kill or damage the cancer cells and stop them from growing and multiplying. During radiotherapy treatment the patient uses a lot of energy dealing with the effects of the radiation on normal cells and tiredness usually build up towards the end and may last for a few months after the treatment finished. Cancer patient is likely very frustrated and this frustration takes different forms. The frustration can make the patient aggressive, helpless and hopeless in

Each treatment session will take about 10-30 minutes and you won’t usually need to stay in hospital.

Radiation therapy is an important practice in a lot of hospital and clinics many people are not aware of. It is also known as Radiation Oncology, and it is for the treatment of cancer by using beams of high-energy waves called radiation as the UI Cancer Information Services defined it. Radiation therapy plays important role in helping cure cancer. Radiation therapy is given to cancer patients in order to kill the cancer cells or it may slower the growth of cancer cells (UI Cancer Information Services, 2011). Therapy can be used to reduce pain or pressure by shrinking tumor, in cases where cure is not possible. There are various methods to do the therapy and patient may receive one or combination of techniques depending upon the size,

Cancer is the most terrible and dangerous diseases. In case of this disease, there is abnormal cell growth. The cells also spread or invade the other parts of the body. When a person is diagnosed with cancer, he/she is given several different treatment options. These options are determined by personal requirements, the type of the cancer, the age of the person, the stage of the cancer’s development and the person’s general health condition.

In 2007, it is predicted that almost 1.5 million people will be diagnosed with cancer in the United States (Pickle et al., 2007). More than half of these cancer patients will undergo the use of radiation as a means for treating cancer at some point during the course of their disease (Perez and Brady, 1998). Cancer, a disease caused by an uncontrollable growth of abnormal cells, affects millions of people around the world. Radiotherapy is one of the well known various methods used to treat cancer, where high powered rays are aimed directly at the tumor from the outside of the body as external radiation or an instrument is surgically placed inside the body producing a result of internal radiation. Radiation is delivered to the cancerous regions of the body to damage and destroy the cells in that area, terminating the rapid growth and division of the cells. Radiation therapy has been used by medicine as a treatment for cancer from the beginning of the twentieth century, with its earliest beginnings coming from the discovery of x-rays in 1895 by Wilhelm Röntgen. With the advancements in physics and computer programming, radiation had greatly evolved towards the end of the twentieth century and made the radiation treatment more effective. Radiation therapy is a curative treatment approach for cancer because it is successful in killing cancerous tumor cells and stop them from regenerating.