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Review
. 2019 Dec 9:13:982.
doi: 10.3332/ecancer.2019.982. eCollection 2019.

Is there any benefit to particles over photon radiotherapy?

Maria E Goossens  1 , Marc Van den Bulcke  1 , Thierry Gevaert  2 , Lydie Meheus  3 , Dirk Verellen  2   4   5 , Jean-Marc Cosset  6 , Guy Storme  2
Affiliations
Review

Is there any benefit to particles over photon radiotherapy?

Maria E Goossens et al. Ecancermedicalscience. .

Abstract

Particle, essentially, proton radiotherapy (RT) could provide some benefits over photon RT, especially in reducing the side effects of RT. We performed a systematic review to identify the performed randomised clinical trials (RCTs) and ongoing RCTs comparing particle RT with photon therapy. So far, there are no results available from phase 3 RCTs comparing particle RT with photon therapy. Furthermore, the results on side effects comparing proton and carbon ion beam RT with photon RT do vary. The introduction of new techniques in photon RT, such as image-guided RT (IGRT), intensity-modulated RT (IMRT), volumetric arc therapy (VMAT) and stereotactic body RT (SBRT) was already effective in reducing side effects. At present, the lack of evidence limits the indications for proton and carbon ion beam RTs and makes the particle RT still experimental.

Keywords: cancer; carbon ion beam; hadron; particles radiotherapy; proton.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Flow diagram of the published literature stratified for proton and CIRT.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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