Typically, these cases are treated with radiation after surgery to remove a tumor, but the toxicity of that treatment has been shown to sometimes outweigh the benefits. Authors, Dr. Jill Remick, a resident in the department of Radiation Oncology, Dr. Charles Simone, an assistant professor of Radiation Oncology, and Dr. Abigail Berman, an instructor in the department of Radiation Oncology, showed that proton therapy is well tolerated by patients while maintaining the positive clinical outcomes of IMRT.

Out of 34 patients, 17 underwent IMRT while 17 underwent proton therapy. One year overall survival and local recurrence-free survival rates were "excellent" in both groups, 85.7 and 94.1 percent for proton and IMRT, respectively. In each group, two study participants had side effects (radiation pneumonitis and esophagitis) but in the proton group the side effects were reportedly less severe.


"Proton therapy appears to be well-tolerated, while maintaining the positive clinical outcomes witnessed with IMRT," the authors reported in a statement.

Finally a team from Penn Medicine presented results from a prospective clinical of proton therapy for chordoma and chondrosarcoma, two rare and hard to treat bone cancers. Normally, those cases are treated with surgery followed by conventional radiation, but that treatment can fail.

Dr. Brian Baumann, a resident in the department of Radiation Oncology, and Dr. Michelle Alonso-Basanta, an assistant professor of Radiation Oncology, studied 20 patients with non-metastatic chordoma and chondrosarcoma who underwent proton therapy between 2010 and 2014. They found that all of the patients were alive at last follow up in February of this year. Local recurrence-free survival, distant metastases-free survival, and disease-free survival at two years were 92 percent, 95 percent, and 87 percent respectively.

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