What are the potential benefits of using proton therapy in Taiwanese cancer patients?

Methodologies to Increase the Level of Evidence of Real-life Proton Therapy in Head and Neck Tumors

“…The unique properties of protons, with their finite range in tissues, along with a zero-dose beyond the end of their path, fit well for HN cancer conditions, in which the aim of RT is, in most cases, patient cure, and the risk of permanent side effects affecting a patient's quality of life (QoL) is not negligible [ 7 ]. Several national health systems allow the use of protons for specific HN subsites or in case of advanced stages of disease [ 8 , 9 ], and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network HN cancer guidelines are open to the use of PT, suggesting its use when healthy tissue constraints cannot be met by photon-based RT for most subsites or, in the case of paranasal sinuses, as an alternative to IMRT [ 1 ] However, despite the increasing number of scientific reports showing the feasibility and effectiveness of the use of PT in HN cancer [ 10 – 12 ], the clinical evidence for its potential benefits remains low for several reasons. Radiation therapy technologies tend to progress with incremental innovations in performance and safety, in shorter development cycle than those usually needed for medical drugs, and those constant improvements in radiation technology make it difficult to evaluate it with classical approaches to generate evidence, such as clinical trials.…”