PROTON THERAPY. (A treatment for Cancers)

Hii..I am Gourav and in this blog I am going to share something about CANCER with you..

National Health profile 2019 revealed that there were nearly 258 cancer patients recorded per lakh of population in 2019 in India , which was earlier 106 cancer patients per lakh population in 2016

By this we can know that how the number of Cancer patients is increasing year by year in India,  in present scenario this problem is not only facing by India but also the whole world is facing such problem.

Let's know more about cancer.....

WHAT IS CANCER ?

In my point of view we cannot say a cancer as a disease rather it is a condition in which the cell divides uncontrollably and abnormally which     results in tissue destruction....

Cancer are of many types like breast cancer, prostate cancer , basal cell cancer , skin cancer, colon cancer etc...

Out to these the lung cancer, breast cancer and prostate cancer are the most common type of cancer.

TREATMENT

many procedures and drugs are available which are commonly used for treating cancer.

Some are local treatment like surgery and Radiation therapy which are used to treat specific tumor.

And some are systemic  treatments which includes chemotherapy , immunotherapy etc...

But in this blog l am going to share something about Proton Therapy , which is a new step in the treatment of cancer with fewer side effects in comparison to other traditional treatment for cancer

PROTON THERAPY :-

Proton therapy is a type of Radiation therapy which is used to treat cancer.

In this therapy the Proton beams are used instead of X rays..

The X rays as radiation therapy is a traditional way to treat cancer..Now a days it is not so much used as it has some side effects and can harm the healthy tissues..

In this therapy the high energy protons are used to destroy the cancer cells.

It is a type of external beam Radiation therapy which painlessly delivers the radiation inside the body through skin from machine outside the body without affecting the healthy tissues..

HOW IT WORKS :-

The protons are deliver by a machine called synchrotron or cyclotron which speeds up protons and the high speed of protons creates high energy.

This high energy Proton can easily penetrate deep inside the body to the targeted side with targeted radiation dose..

In Proton therapy there is less radiation dose outside the tumor it means that it effect less healthy tissues and have fewer Side Effects than the traditional Radiation therapy..

MACHINES USED FOR DELIVERING PROTONS -

Synchrotron and cyclotron is used to deliver the proton beam.

This machines accelerate Proton to speed upto 60% the speed of light and energies of 250 million electron volts.

This high energy Proton are steered by magnet toward the treatment room and then to specific part of the body being treated...

The magnetic field created by the magnet guide the part of the proton being and delivers the proton beam where the energy needed to destroy the tumor cells..

CANCERS IN WHICH PROTON THERAPY IS USED  :-

Proton therapy is being used to treat tumors in in different areas of the body with encouraging early results.

It is mainly used in following cases :-

Lungs cancer

Prostate cancer

Breast cancer

Oesophagus cancer

Rectum cancer

Liver cancer

Skull base carcomas

Paediatric brain tumor

Head and neck cancer

Eye melanomas..

DURATION OF PROTON THERAPY -

Once the tumors location is accurately determined Proton therapy sessions may take anywhere from 4 to 8 weeks..

The appointment usually takes 15 to 45 minutes but the actual time the proton therapy takes to deliver the proton beam is only 1- 3 months on average..

PROTON THERAPY IN INDIA :-

Recently India becomes 16th country in the world to offer Proton therapy..

Apollo Proton Cancer Centre (APCC) is providing this treatment in India.

The entire treatment will cost about 25 to 30 lakh rupees for a patient , which is a very huge amount to be paid by a middle class family in India..So, in India many patients goes for Chemotherapy as a treatment for cancer..

BENEFITS OF PROTON THERAPY :-

In comparison to other Radiation therapy Proton therapy has several benefits :-

- Usually the proton therapy delivers 60% less radiation to Healthy tissues as compared to other Radiation therapy.

- It allows high radiation dose to the tumor which may increase the chances of destroying all tumor cells.

- It has very less Side Effects as compared to other Radiation therapy.

DRAWBACKS OFPROTON THERAPY :-

As we know that there is nothing in the world which is 100% perfect so in that point of view the proton therapy has also some drawbacks -

- It is very much costly as compared to X Ray Radiation therapy.

- Not all cancer can be treated by Proton therapy

- In many places there is in availability of the documents on machines which are used for delivering the proton beam...