No matter who you are, no matter where you live, no matter what you do for a living or any other facet of your life, getting a cancer diagnosis can be a hugely terrifying thing indeed. And no matter what, any kind of cancer diagnosis is likely to be hugely life changing as well. For many people, the first question that they have will be surrounding cancer treatment, and what types of cancer treatment will be able to give them the best results at the end of the day.
Fortunately, new forms of cancer treatment and therapy are becoming more and more accessible to greater populations of cancer sufferers. Proton radiation treatment for cancer is one of them. This proton radiation treatment for cancer, also called simply proton therapy, is becoming more and more popular here in the United States. Proton radiation treatment for cancer provides an alternative to the more traditional radiation treatment for cancer and is actually ideal in a number of different ways.
For one thing, proton radiation treatment for cancer is much easier on parts of the body that have not been affected by the cancer in question. For instance, proton treatment in comparison to traditional radiation treatment for cancer will reduce the amount of radiation that is ultimately sent to the gastrointestinal system by as much as 59%, which is certainly quite significant by just about any means and standards.
Proton therapy for breast cancer can also help to reduce a good deal of the radiation that would unfortunately end up sent to the lungs or to the heart. When proton radiation treatment for cancer is specifically used for breast cancer, almost no radiation will be sent to the heart at all and, in addition to this, the radiation that is sent to the lungs will be reduced by as much as half in comparison to tradition radiation treatment for cancer, showing clearly how beneficial and superior proton radiation treatment for cancer is.
And not only can proton radiation treatment for cancer preserve the health of your other organs, but it can be incredibly effective at actually fighting the cancer in question. For instance, proton radiation treatment for cancer has been found to be particularly effective at treating prostate cancer, which is a relatively commonplace type of cancer among the male population of the United States. For men with low risk prostate cancer who received proton radiation treatment for cancer, the chances of recurrence are incredibly low, with only about 1% of this population having had a recurrence of any type five years on.
In addition to this, even intermediate risk prostate cancer sufferers have had incredible results from the implementation of proton therapy for cancer. For such patients, nearly 95% of them will still be cancer free five years down the road, when cancer is technically considered to be cured. For high risk patents, the odds are, as one might expect, less good, but still quite ideal all things considered. These patients have a nearly three quarters chance of not having cancer again after a five year period, after they have completed a course of proton radiation treatment for cancer, particularly their prostate cancer. While these odds are not as good as for the low and intermediate risk prostate cancer patients, they are still much better than for other types of cancer as well as for other treatment methods, making them still quite impressive indeed.
And proton treatment for cancer is not just used for the treatment of prostate cancer, though it is certainly one of the most impactful and important treatment options for prostate cancer out there. Proton radiation treatment for cancer is also common used for the treatment of breast cancer, as briefly discussed above, as well as for the treatment of head and neck cancer, often brain tumors. Brain tumors come in a number of different types and varieties, and understanding the nature of any given tumor will most certainly be important in ultimately being able to treat it. Fortunately, proton radiation treatment for cancer has made new steps in treating all of these cancers and more.