Proton Therapy for Head and Neck Cancers

Tough on Your Tumor. Easier on Your Body.

For head and neck tumors, treatment usually means surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. When it comes to radiation, proton therapy provides a safer option. It lowers the risk of side effects such as vision loss, hearing loss, trouble swallowing and dry mouth.

With standard X-ray radiation therapy, the radiation dose is highest right where the X-rays enter your body. The X-rays keep giving off radiation as they go through your tumor and the tissue beyond. With proton radiation therapy, treatment is sent right to the tumor. The goal is for less radiation to reach your nearby tissue.

Types of Head and Neck Cancer Treated with Proton Therapy

Proton therapy may be an option for people with a wide range of head and neck cancers, including:

• Base-of-skull tumors (such as tumors related to the anterior, middle and posterior cranial fossa; the sphenoid; and the temporal bone)
• Sinonasal cancers (tumors in the paranasal sinuses and nasal cavity)
• Cancers near the eyes and orbits (eye sockets)
• Nasopharyngeal cancers
• Small/early oropharyngeal cancers (tumors around the tonsils and tongue base)
• Some salivary gland tumors (tumors of the parotid, submandibular and minor salivary glands of the upper aerodigestive tract) 
• Complex skin cancers that involve cranial nerves or lymph nodes of the neck 
• Unknown primary cancers (after a thorough surgical workup)

Proton therapy may also be an option for some people who have already had radiation therapy.

Pencil-Beam Scanning

Our radiation oncologists use pencil-beam scanning (PBS) to treat patients with proton therapy. PBS “paints” the tumor with a lot of very thin, very exact beams of protons. The beams are accurate down to millimeters. PBS sends very fast pulses of protons to each planned spot within the tumor until the entire cancer is treated. This method can lower the amount of radiation to healthy tissue even more. 

Proton Therapy Facts

• Compared to standard radiation therapy, proton therapy may reduce damage to the mouth, eyes, optic nerves, salivary glands and other organs. It could lower your risk of side effects like vision, hearing and smell loss.
• Patients who get proton therapy instead of standard radiation therapy are about half as likely to have severe weight loss or need a feeding tube.
• Treatments are safe, noninvasive (no cuts to the skin are needed) and painless for most patients, helping you recover faster and keep living your life.
• Proton therapy may be an option for you even if you’ve already had radiation for cancer. In fact, it may be your only option for getting more radiation treatment.
• The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved proton therapy for clinical use in 1988. More than 200,000 people worldwide have had this form of treatment.