Proton Therapy More Effective For Cancer And With Lesser Side Effects Compared To Conventional Radiation Or Chemotherapy
Source: Thailand Medical news Dec 27, 2019 4 years, 10 months, 3 weeks, 6 days, 22 hours, 44 minutes ago
CANCER
A new study shows that
Proton therapy leads to significantly lower risk of side effects severe enough to lead to unplanned hospitalizations for
cancer patients when compared with traditional
radiation, while cure rates between the two groups are almost identical.
The study findings come from an expanded analysis of the largest review of its kind, performed by researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, to evaluate whether or not patients undergoing
radiation therapy at the same time
as chemotherapy experienced serious adverse events within 90 days. Researchers found
proton therapy reduces the relative risk of these side effects by two-thirds.
JAMA Oncology published the findings today.
The study's lead author Dr Brian Baumann, MD, an adjunct Assistant Professor of
Radiation Oncology at Penn and an Assistant Professor of
Radiation Oncology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis told
Thailand Medical News, "This is exciting because it shows that
proton therapy offers a way for us to reduce the serious side effects of
chemo-radiation and improve patient health and wellbeing without sacrificing the effectiveness of the therapy."
Typically
Proton therapy has a few key differences from traditional photon
radiation. Photon
radiation typically uses multiple X-ray beams to deliver
radiation to the tumor target but unavoidably deposits
radiation in the normal tissues beyond the target, potentially damaging those tissues as the beam exits the body.
Proton therapy is an FDA-approved alternative
radiation treatment that directs positively charged protons at the tumor. They deposit the bulk of the
radiation dose to the target with almost no residual
radiation delivered beyond the target, reducing damage to surrounding healthy tissue and potentially reducing side effects.
The researchers for this study, evaluated side effects including pain or difficulty swallowing, difficulty breathing, nausea, or diarrhea, among others. Researchers focused on grade-three effects or higher, defined as side effects severe enough for patients to be hospitalized. They evaluated data on 1,483 cancer patients receiving
radiation and
chemotherapy at the same time. Of these, 391 patients received
proton therapy, while 1,092 underwent photon treatment. All patients had non-metastatic
cancer and were undergoing treatment intended to be curative. Patients with brain
cancer, head and neck
cancer, lung
cancer, g
astrointestinal
cancer, and gynecologic
cancer treated with concurrent
chemo-radiation were included.
The main primary outcome was whether or not patients experienced adverse side effects that were grade-three or higher within 90 days of treatment. In the proton group, only 11.5 percent of patients (45) did, compared to 27.6 percent of patients (301) in the photon group. A weighted analysis of both patient groups, which controlled for other factors that may have led to differences between the patient groups, found that the relative risk of a severe toxicity was two-thirds lower for
proton patients compared to photon patients.
Senior author Dr James Metz, MD, chair of Radiation
Oncology, leader of the Roberts Proton Therapy Center at Penn, and a member of Penn's Abramson
Cancer Center added, "We know from our clinical experience that
proton therapy can have this benefit, but even we did not expect the effect to be this sizeable.”
Most importantly, overall survival and disease-free survival were similar between the two groups, suggesting that the reduction in toxicity seen with
proton therapy did not come at the cost of reduced effectiveness. Researchers say these results hint at the promise of
proton therapy as a way to deliver intensified systemic therapy and/or higher dose
radiation therapy more safely, which could improve survival outcomes. In fact, data showed that while older patients with more comorbidities were more likely to receive
proton therapy, they experienced fewer side effects.
Dr Baumann added, "This tells us
proton therapy may allow older patients to receive the most effective combined treatments, and that older, sicker patients can more safely be included in clinical trials that use
proton therapy."
Although researchers say further research is needed, they point out that this study is the best information we have so far as randomized controlled trials continue to prove difficult to complete.
Reference : Comparative Effectiveness of Proton vs Photon Therapy as Part of Concurrent Chemoradiotherapy for Locally Advanced Cancer,
Brian C. Baumann, MD; Nandita Mitra, PhD; Joanna G. Harton, MS; et al
JAMA Oncol. Published online December 26, 2019. doi:https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaoncol.2019.4889
