Treatable cancers
The treatment spectrum includes a wide range of uses in cancer therapy:
- All tumours which have been treated to date using linear accelerators (with and without intensity modulated radiotherapy, or IMRT) or related equipment with x-ray radiation;
- All tumours which are in principle suitable for treatment with radiation but which were virtually impossible to treat with x-ray radiation due to the unfavourable side effects;
- Comparative studies are currently under way at the Loma Linda Proton Center in the USA. These studies indicate that proton radiation is also superior to surgery for bronchial carcinomas (lung cancer);
- In selected cases, metastases can also be irradiated with the intention of effecting a complete cure, the most frequent possibility being metachronic multiple liver metastases (following colon cancer), which are not accessible to x-ray therapy, given the risk of radiation hepatitis.
Mobile tumours, such as those in the upper colon and those where widespread radiation is not helpful (for example, in the bone marrow) cannot be treated with radiation. These include numerous types of leukaemias.