When lung cancer is treated with conventional radiation, it is difficult to deliver a high enough radiation dose to control the cancer without also damaging the normal lungs, esophagus, heart and spinal cord.
Proton therapy can more effectively treat these tumors—particularly larger ones— while better protecting critical structures from radiation. As a result, protons can minimize side effects such as lung inflammation (pneumonitis) or scarring (fibrosis), difficulty swallowing, heart complications, hospitalizations, and other side effects that are commonly seen with conventional lung cancer treatment.
Lung and thoracic cancers we treat with proton radiation therapy include
- Non-small lung cancer
- Small cell lung cancer
- Malignant mesothelioma
- Thymomas and and thymic carcinomas
- Cardiac tumors
- Thoracic sarcoma
- Recurrent thoracic cancers