The Apollo Proton Cancer Centre (APCC), the first and only proton therapy center in South Asia and the Middle East, has successfully treated a 21-year-old woman from Kolkata with Proton Beam Therapy (PBT) for a different type of brain tumor as part of its mission to offer the most comprehensive and cutting-edge cancer care in India.

A press conference was organized in the presence of Harish Trivedi, Medhasree Sanyal, Navadiya Jemin Mansukhbhai, and Dr. Sapna Nangia, Senior Consultant, Radiation Oncology, Apollo Proton Cancer Centre, Chennai to talk about this therapy.

A highly developed type of radiation therapy that offers outstanding precision and effectiveness in the treatment of cancer is Proton Beam Therapy. Modern pencil beam scanning equipment, available only at the Apollo Proton Cancer Center, allows for accurate delivery of proton beams to the tumor with the least possible harm to surrounding healthy tissues. This makes proton treatment especially advantageous for cancers present in delicate regions, such as the brain, base of the skull, head, neck, or lungs, where conventional radiation therapy can seriously injure healthy tissue. Research has demonstrated that proton therapy offers outstanding success in the treatment of or control of a variety of cancers while minimizing both short- and long-term adverse effects. Proton therapy ultimately increases patients’ quality of life while also increasing their chances of survival.

The main benefit of proton therapy treatment is that protons slowly release their energy as they move in the direction of the cancerous tumor, depositing the majority of the radiation dose directly into the tumor without further harming the body and maintaining healthy tissues and organs without any complications. It has been demonstrated that proton therapy provides great local control of a variety of malignancies located in some of the most challenging places of the body, such as the skull-base regions of the body, which are otherwise challenging to treat. Recent advancements in this technology, such as pencil beam scanning, extremely precise image guidance, and significant machine setup improvements, have prompted its use in clinical settings around the globe.

Breast cancer, thoracic malignancies (lung cancer), genitourinary cancers (prostate cancer), oral cancers, gastro-intestinal cancers, bone, and soft tissue tumors, and primarily pediatric cancers, with the exception of leukemia, are all being treated with proton therapy, which is encouraging.

Priyanka Dutta