Proton Therapy Promises and Perils: What Progress Has Been Made?
A special issue of Cancers (ISSN 2072-6694). This special issue belongs to the section "Methods and Technologies Development".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2024) | Viewed by 3385
Special Issue Editor
Interests: proton therapy; physics direct patient care; quality assurance
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
In 2009, AAPM (American Association of Physicists in Medicine) hosted a special symposium on “The Promises and Perils of Proton Radiotherapy”. The late Michael Goitein gave the opening talk, “Past, Present and Future”. At that time, there were less than 10 proton therapy facilities operating in the US. Currently, there are 39 proton therapy centers in the US, and we are on the verge of building a carbon ion therapy center. This issue will attempt to look at the progress achieved since then. Intensity-modulated proton therapy (IMPT) has become the standard method of delivery. Medical physicists tout the promise of proton therapy as exhibited by the superior depth-dose deposition. Practitioners enjoy treatment plans able to spare large volumes of normal tissue. Meanwhile, substantial improvements in clinical outcomes are less easy to conclusively demonstrate. Has proton therapy lived up to our expectations? What new clinical evidence do we have supporting protons? What perils do we still need to address? How are uncertainties being managed? Is cost still a major issue? Is this the future we saw, and if not, when do we expect it?
In this Special Issue, we invite articles addressing clinical topics, both successes and work remaining to be carried out. In particular, this issue should address the state of the art in:
- Pediatrics, including issues around brain necrosis;
- Quality of life;
- Motion management, particularly in lung, liver, and esophageal cancer;
- Cardiac sparing;
- Target margins and uncertainty;
- Cost effectiveness;
- Issues around randomized clinical trials;
- Biological uncertainties.
Dr. Charles Bloch
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- proton therapy
- pencil beam scanning
- motion management
- RBE
- pediatrics
- breast cancer
- economics
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