Proton therapy also popularly known as proton beam therapy is a kind of radiation therapy that uses protons instead of X-rays to treat cancer. Just like X-ray radiation, proton therapy is a type of external beam therapy that can painlessly deliver radiation through the skin of the patient from the machine located outside the body. 

Proton therapy has quickly gained a lot of popularity as a painless therapy with a higher success rate in effectively treating cancer with fewer side effects. Proton therapy is not only the best but also one of the most effective therapies that are proven to control several types of cancer. Proton Therapy also has a success rate of 85 to 90% in treating people with advanced stages of cancer.  

What is proton therapy? 
Proton therapy is a kind of radiation therapy that utilizes tiny particles called protons instead of using X-rays to treat cancer. Protons are popular for their cell-killing abilities. Protons are excellent cell killers as they deliver their energy and do not damage healthy tissues but target only the cancerous cells. 

Proton therapy is known to be 90% effective in treating several kinds of tumours including brain tumours, central nervous systems, tumours in the lungs, gastrointestinal system and prostate, etc. Proton therapy helps by treating solid tumours even in children as protons can be easily controlled to minimise the side effects on normal tissues and helping the patient from serious complications and secondary tumours. 

Proton beam therapy has quickly become one of the most preferred standards for treating cancer, worldwide. 

How does proton therapy work? 
The working of Proton therapy can be explained easily using the machine called cyclotron or synchrotron that speeds up protons. The highest speed initiated in the protons creates high energy which makes the protons travel to the desired depth in the body. This beam of proton then completes the targeted radiation dose for the respective cancer tumour. 

Proton therapy is less painful because the radiation dose is applied only to the tumour. With Proton therapy, there is less radiation dose outside the tumour. The proton radiation, therefore, damages only the unhealthy tissues leaving the healthy tissues intact and decreasing the side effects caused by other therapies and treatments. 

Is proton therapy safer than traditional Radiation therapy? 
The safety-related comparison between Proton therapy and Radiation therapy has been an ongoing debate between medical experts and researchers. Proton therapy uses proton beam radiations that may be safer and equally effective as traditional radiation for adults with advanced stages of cancer. The finding can be concluded from a study that took existing patients’ data to compare the effects of both types of radiation on the tumour. 

Traditional Radiation therapy delivers an X-ray that can damage nearby healthy tissues along with the cancerous tumour causing a significantly higher number of side effects. On the other hand, proton therapy uses only a beam of proton particles that directly target the tumour resulting in less damage to the nearby healthy tissues. A lot of experts even believe that Proton therapy is much safer than traditional Radiation therapy. However, there is limited research comparing both treatments. 

The debate comparing proton therapy and traditional Radiation therapy get stuck at the expense and cost of treatment. Proton therapy is far more expensive than traditional radiation. Moreover, not all insurance companies cover the cost of proton therapy treatment. 

A lot of studies conducted on patients treated with Proton therapy have concluded that Proton therapy is much less likely to cause serious side effects than Radiation therapy. Hence, it is a safer treatment than traditional radiation therapy.