Proton therapy for lymphomas

Lymphomas often occur in the chest. Proton therapy can treat these tumors with high-dose radiation while minimizing damage and long-term side effects to the adjacent normal heart, lungs, breast and esophagus. Both Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma patients can have significant benefits from proton therapy. Proton therapy is particularly helpful for patients who have had prior therapy, tumors that recurred after prior radiation therapy, large and bulky tumors, and in children.

Lymphomas we treat with proton radiation therapy include

• Hodgkin lymphoma
• Non-Hodgkin lymphomas: Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, follicular lymphoma, mantle cell lymphoma, marginal zone B-cell lymphomas, gray zone lymphoma, Burkitt lymphoma, primary central nervous system lymphomas

Most proton centers use “volumetric” beams that deliver a fixed quantity of energy to the entire tumor. But the pencil beam scanning technology at the New York Proton Center delivers “intensity-modulated proton therapy,” or IMPT.

Widely considered the most advanced form of proton therapy, IMPT can target different parts of the tumor with different radiation dose levels based on the prescription and tumor’s exact location, while better protecting the surrounding normal tissues from irradiation. That’s particularly valuable when treating the most complicated tumors, those residing in the fissures of the head, neck and skull base.