Trento Proton Therapy Centre

History

2025: Cancer Treatment with Proton Arc Therapy

At the end of February 2025, Italian researchers from the Trento Center for Proton Therapy reported the first clinical procedures using proton arc therapy. This opens up new opportunities for the treatment of cancer.

In traditional radiation therapy, X-rays or gamma rays are usually used to treat cancer: in addition to malignant, formations healthy tissues can be damaged. Proton therapy uses the energy of a directed beam of protons: a feature of this method is a minimal negative effect on healthy tissues near the lesion - protons release the bulk of their energy exactly at the location of the cancer tumor.

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Фото: physicsworld.com

Proton therapy mainly uses pencil beam scanning (PBS) or pointed beam scanning to accurately distribute the dose. But this method is limited by the number of beam directions that can be delivered in an acceptable treatment time. Proton arc therapy (PAT) solves the problem.

Compared to PBS, PAT technology provides more beam angles with the ability to optimize energy for each direction. This significantly reduces treatment time while maintaining high efficacy. Nine patients received PAT therapy - five with head and neck tumors, three with malignant brain formations and one with chest cancer. A proportion of patients with head and neck tumors were reported to have undergone a PAT procedure with a half-angle (180 degrees) and 10 directions of the bundle, with a median treatment time of 12 minutes. Several more patients were prescribed treatment with a full arc (360 degrees) and 20 directions: in this case, the average procedure time was 24 minutes.^[1]

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