The U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) of Rockville, MD, has published a technical brief on particle beam radiation therapy, the agency's first in a series of technical briefs that summarize key issues regarding emerging treatments.
Particle beam radiation therapy, or proton beam radiation therapy, uses beams of protons or other charged particles for cancer radiation treatment. The AHRQ report did not assess the outcomes or evaluate the validity of claims on the safety and effectiveness of the technology, pointing out that these issues need to be addressed in comparative studies. AHRQ acknowledged the lack of randomized clinical trials that have been completed using this technology.
The report stated that particle beam radiotherapy can deliver radiation doses with high precision anywhere in the patient's body, while sparing healthy tissues that are not in its entry path. Noting that this capability can be an important advantage for specific tumors that are anatomically adjacent to critical structures, the report commented that particle beam radiotherapy will also be increasingly used with much broader indications.
The report also recommended the use of controlled clinical trials and economic cost-benefit analysis to assess theorized advantages of particle beam therapy versus contemporary alternative interventions for treatment of common cancers such as breast, prostate, lung, and pancreatic cancer.
AHRQ is currently reviewing scientific studies on radiation therapies for head and neck cancers to evaluate the clinical effectiveness of particle beam radiation therapy compared to other types of radiotherapy treatments.
Future technical briefs will describe the evidence on fetal surgery, stereotactic surgery for nonbrain cancers, and percutaneous heart valves.
Related Reading
Protons promise lower second cancer risk, May 8, 2009
Proton therapy reduces bone marrow toxicity compared with IMRT, November 24, 2008
Proton therapy shows promise in treating chondrosarcoma, September 29, 2008
Proton therapy lowers chance of second malignancy, September 23, 2008
Copyright © 2009 AuntMinnie.com
