HOUSTON /PRNewswire/ -- The radiation oncologist's mantra is to deliver the maximum dose of radiation to the malignant tumor, while limiting damage to healthy surrounding tissue. In proton therapy, this balance is achieved by using proton particles, accelerated to nearly the speed of light, to mimic the shape of a tumor and effectively deposit their energy within the confines of it with sub-millimeter precision.

New tools are enabling physicians at the Proton Therapy Center at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer to harness supercharged proton particles and conform them more precisely to the rugged landscape and uneven contours of a tumor. Using a technology known as pencil beam scanning, also known as spot scanning, protons are given the mission: Hone in on cancer cells and destroy. As much an art form as a war tactic, pencil beam proton therapy has the ability to treat the most complex of tumors, like those of the prostate, brain, base of the skull and eye, while leaving healthy tissue and critical structures virtually untouched. The powerful coupling of strength and accuracy offers unmatched capacity to treat a patient's tumor without compromising quality of life during and after treatment.

In nearly a decade since pencil beam's birth in a Swiss physics institute, the world's leading practitioners in radiation science at MD Anderson's Proton Therapy Center have integrated the tested technology into the institution's multidisciplinary approach to patient care and translational cancer research.
A New Frontier for Proton Therapy

Proton therapy derives its advantage over conventional forms of radiation from its ability to deliver radiation doses to a targeted tumor with remarkable precision that avoids the surrounding tissue, which results in fewer side effects and improves tumor control. Most proton patients are treated with a technique known as passive scattering, which uses apertures to shape the proton beam and deliver a uniform dose to the tumor. Since opening in the spring of 2006, MD Anderson's Proton Therapy Center has treated nearly 1,700 patients with this passive scattering technique [See Sidebar: A Best in Class Facility].

Pencil beam proton therapy delivers a single, narrow proton beam (which may be less than a millimeter in diameter) that is magnetically swept across the tumor, depositing the radiation dose like a painter's brush strokes, without the need to construct beam shaping devices. The technology continues to build on the patient benefits already offered with proton therapy - more targeted, higher tumor dose, shorter treatment times, reduced side effects and increased treatment options - to treat complicated tumors perilously close to critical structures, such as the eye, brain and esophagus.

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