MD Anderson Cancer Center Offers Next Evolution of Cancer Treatment with Intensity Modulated Proton Therapy

Newswise — Selected for its ability to target tumors precisely while minimizing damage to healthy surrounding tissue, proton therapy has rapidly gained a foothold as an option for radiation treatment in the past decade. The Proton Therapy Center at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, continues to innovate the field by being the first and only center in North America to treat patients with the most advanced form of proton therapy, called intensity modulated proton therapy with multi-field optimization (IMPT). Opened in 2006 as the first proton therapy center at a major comprehensive cancer center, it is now one of 10 proton therapy centers currently operating in the United States. The Proton Therapy Center treats over 800 patients of all ages every year.

IMPT, considered the “holy grail” by many radiation oncologists, is best used to deliver a potent and precise dose of protons to the most complicated tumors, ones that largely reside embedded in the nooks and crannies of the head and neck or skull base. MD Anderson envisioned IMPT as an achievable reality when the Proton Therapy Center introduced pencil beam technology in 2008 for patients with cancers of the pelvis, brain and certain pediatric tumors. Like pencil beam, IMPT relies on complex treatment planning systems and an intricate network of magnets to focus and aim a narrow proton beam and essentially “paint” the radiation dose onto the tumor layer by layer.

source: Newswise