May 25, 2016 -- Scripps Health -- May is National Cancer Research Month, declared by the United States Congress to recognize innovative work being done to help foster improvements in patient care.

And while much attention has rightly been given to advances in immunotherapy, genetic testing and targeted drugs, another key area of cancer research – proton radiation therapy – has been gaining momentum as well.

Proton therapy is a form of external beam radiation that effectively kills cancer, while sparing more healthy tissue surrounding a patient's tumor than conventional X-ray radiation therapy. It is a highly specialized treatment, with 23 proton therapy centers now operating in the U.S., compared to approximately 2,000 facilities offering X-ray therapy nationwide.
The first hospital-based proton center in the U.S. opened in the early 1990s, but it's only recently that proton therapy has become more mainstream. The number of proton centers in the U.S. has doubled since 2012 and several more are on the way, as the technology becomes more affordable. Meanwhile, the volume and breadth of scientific studies exploring the benefits of proton therapy are expanding, with approximately 100 proton-related clinical trials currently active and recruiting in the U.S.

"We're curing more people of cancer today and they're living longer after their treatments," said Carl Rossi, M.D., medical director of the Scripps Proton Therapy Center in San Diego. "More than ever, we need to be cognizant of the potential effects our treatments may have on patients' long-term health. Radiation kills cancer, but it can also potentially cause cancer and other serious health problems, so the less of it we deliver to patients' healthy tissue, the better."

Because it is composed of positively charged heavy particles, a proton beam can be controlled to deposit the bulk of its cancer-fighting energy (or radiation dose) within the tumor, with little to no radiation to normal tissue in front of or behind the tumor. By comparison, X-ray beams are composed of massless particles of energy with no electrical charge, and as a result, deliver radiation to healthy tissue in front of and after the tumor site. X-ray therapy has improved over the years and is effective in controlling many cancers, but in certain cases, the accuracy of proton therapy offers a clinical advantage.

Validating the clinical advantages of proton therapy through research studies will be crucial to gaining wider coverage by insurance companies, due to its relatively higher treatment costs compared to X-ray treatments.

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