PROTONS GETTING HIGH MARKS FOR TREATING GI CANCERS

Harmful spillover radiation to the bowels, stomach and liver has soured many cancer physicians
on using conventional radiation concurrently with chemotherapy or surgery for treating gastrointestinal (GI) cancers.
But the lesser side effects of highly targeted proton radiation may dramatically change the negative perceptions about using radiation for GI cancers.
“Conventional radiation treatments for GI cancers have definitely been marginalized in pancreatic cancer, gastric cancer and rectal cancer,” says John Plastaras, M.D., a GI cancer specialist at the Roberts Proton Therapy Center and associate professor of radiation oncology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, part of Penn Medicine in Philadelphia,... Full article