An unfortunate reality of life is that nobody stays healthy forever. Cancer is a scary thing, and in many ways it is unavoidable – you can prevent obesity a lot more easily than you can prevent cancer. What makes cancer so scary is that it’s hard to understand how to beat it.
Cancer treatment centers are popping up all over the world, offering various advanced cancer treatment options. While the layperson may only know of radiation or chemotherapy as forms of cancer treatment, it is a far more nuanced field. Additionally, different tactics apply between breast cancer treatment, brain cancer treatment, and treatment for prostate cancer.
One of the newest and most promising advanced cancer treatment options is proton therapy. Proton therapy for cancer is slightly different than traditional radiation therapy. Proton therapy is able to target the cancer more efficiently, meaning smaller amounts of radiation enter the otherwise healthy parts of the body. This means that if a patient is receiving proton therapy for breast cancer, almost 0 radiation reaches the heart and about 50% less reaches the lungs than would under normal radiation treatments.
While chemotherapy is probably the most commonly known of the advanced cancer treatment options, proton therapy has some striking advantages over it. For example, while chemo sessions regularly last multiple hours, a typical proton therapy session lasts somewhere between 15 and 45 minutes. Additionally, for men in particular, these sessions massively reduce the risk of impotence. In the same way that radiation for breast cancer may reach the lungs and heart, traditional radiation therapy for prostate cancer can cause impotence among men. However, 94% of men surveyed stated that they remained sexually active after receiving proton therapy.
Most importantly, proton therapy seems to be working. You can have all the advanced cancer treatment options you want, but the only thing that matters is how effective each one is. In a study of men who received proton therapy for low, intermediate, and high-risk prostate cancer, a remarkable amount were still cancer free after five years. The low risk patients were 99% cancer-free, the intermediate risk patients were over 90% cancer-free, and the high risk patients were nearly 75% cancer free.
The results speak for themselves. Due to the success of the therapy, proton therapy centers are on the rise all around the world. For those who are unfamiliar with the process and results, let this be the beginning of your lesson. Be sure to take a deep look at any and all options before committing to anything, but know that proton therapy is looking awfully good.