by
John R. Fischer, Senior Reporter | March 12, 2018
From the March 2018 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
“For a child, if one leg stops growing two inches lower than the other leg, that’s a lifetime of hip problems and back problems. The child might not be able to run and will require many orthopedic surgeons to fix that problem,” says Chang. “If we can avoid that radiation exposure by using protons, we’re sparing them from a lifetime of growth problems.”
The precise nature of proton therapy enables greater chance of avoiding these issues with treatment targeting the tumor while minimizing exposure to healthy tissue.
Yet, within this phenomenon, arises a misconception that proton therapy is side effect- free, a notion that experts are quick to dismiss when consulting patients.
“Whenever we give radiation, there are going to be side effects,” says Chang. “The goal is to minimize those or eliminate some specific ones, but it’s not like you can get zero side effects from treatment.”
Scott Warwick, the executive director of the National Association of Proton Therapy, says the key point to remember is that the treatment itself is a form of radiation, just one that can be better administered.
“It’s still radiation. It’s not a new drug or treatment. It’s just protons is the best delivery method of radiation that’s available today,” he says.
Barriers
While experts agree that the U.S. has the best access to proton therapy, many people are still forced to pick up and travel long distances for treatment. For children, the situation is even more taxing as many of these centers may be lacking in resources necessary for the care of pediatric patients.
Beth Klein, president of IBA Proton Therapy in North America, says one reason for this is due to the fact that cancer among children makes up less than 1 percent of all oncology cases.
“Even with it being the leading cause of death in infancy among children in the U.S., it’s still very rare,” she told HCB News. “You need a mix of other clinical indications to justify the volume required to support a proton therapy center.”
The establishment of centers for children as well as adults is further hindered by infrastructure and time of construction due to the enormous size and cost of proton therapy systems.
“The machines are costly almost regardless of type and model,” Bill Hansen, director of proton marketing at Varian, told HCB News. “They are fairly large. You can’t just roll them into a center. You need to build the building around the equipment. It takes anywhere from two to three years to get a project completed to the point where you’re treating patients. Capital and time are probably the biggest barriers today.”
