How does proton therapy differ from traditional radiation therapy?
Traditional radiation therapy affects everything in its path, so doctors have to limit the dose delivered to the tumor in order to minimize damage to surrounding healthy tissue. With proton therapy, however, the beam is accelerated to specific energies that determine how deeply in the body protons will deposit their maximum energy. Protons enter the body with a low dose of radiation, which increases when the beam slows down within the designated target tumor and then protons stop. The combined effect is greater precision in targeting the tumor with a more potent dose of radiation.
