This article is excerpted from the Proton Treatment Center Newsletter, Volume 6, Number 1, 1996. It is used here with permission.
Ionizing radiation is one of the mainstays of modern oncology.
Radiation therapy is one of the two major treatment modalities used in the attempt to cure patients having localized cancers, and is also an effective means of palliating local symptoms of advanced cancer, such as bone pain. The history of oncology reveals several instances of increased long-term survival rates for many tumors for which radiation therapy is used. Radiation therapy, however, can cause unwanted effects in some patients. The patient's inherent reaction to ionizing radiation is variable and influences the outcome. Because the likelihood of controlling a tumor by radiation is related directly to the dose given, the radiation oncologist prefers to give as high a dose as possible.