Proton Beam Therapy, A Revolution In Radiation Oncology Brings Hope To Cancer Patients

Dr. Srinivas Chilukuri, Radiation Oncologist, Apollo Proton Cancer Centre (Centre) and Mr. Varun Sharma, Sr. General Manager-Operations, Apollo Proton Cancer Centre (Right corner) briefed the media today at Hotel Park Hyatt on the case studies of APCC patients Navadiya Jemin Mansukhbhai, Joshmitha, and Kancharla Akhila. - Sakshi Post

Patients treated with Proton Beam Therapy share their successful experience

Hyderabad: With a mission to provide the most comprehensive and advanced cancer care in India, Apollo Proton Cancer Centre (APCC), the first and only proton therapy centre in South Asia and the Middle East, have successfully treated an 11-year-old girl from Hyderabad suffering from a brain tumour and a 16-year-old girl diagnosed with skull base chordoma with proton beam therapy (PBT).

Ms Joshmitha went for a thorough diagnosis after complaints of headache, weakness of the left upper and lower limb and deviation of mouth to the right side. The MRI of the brain revealed a large cancerous mass on the right side of the brain. After undergoing surgery, she was diagnosed with Ependymoma of the right temporoparietal lobe which is an uncommon brain tumour found in children. A repeat MRI scan after a few weeks of treatment of the brain showed a residual mass in the same region. After a thorough discussion with a multidisciplinary tumour board meeting, another surgery was planned followed by postoperative radiotherapy at Apollo Proton Cancer Centre. In view of her young age, potential for long-term control and to preserve the functions of vital structures like the visual, and auditory neural pathways and the brainstem, she was offered proton beam therapy. Post-proton therapy, there was a substantial improvement, and she continues to live a healthy life.

In India, the estimated number of cancer incident cases in 2022 is 14,61,427. According to the International Association of Cancer Registries (IARC), over 24,000 people die each year because of brain tumour. So far, the APCC has treated 336 cases of brain tumours, 20 of which are from Telangana.

Ms. Kancharla Akhila, a 16-year-old girl, was evaluated for right eye deviation and underwent endoscopic debulking surgeries twice in Hyderabad in 2021 before being diagnosed with skull base chordoma, a rare tumour that typically occurs in extremely difficult locations, such as near the base of the skull or adjacent to the spinal cord.

A multidisciplinary tumour board evaluated her at the APCC, and she was advised to have surgical debulking followed by immediate postoperative radiotherapy. Relatively resistant tumours, such as chordomas, require extremely high doses of radiation for the successful eradication of the disease. Because high doses of radiation to such a young child could jeopardise her ability to perform basic tasks, she was considered for proton beam therapy, which allows for the safe delivery of high doses of radiation while sparing normal healthy structures.

Dr Srinivas Chilukuri, Radiation Oncologist, Apollo Proton Cancer Centre, Chennai, said “Proton beam therapy is the most sophisticated form of radiation therapy currently available in the world. At the Apollo Proton Cancer Center, we have the latest PBS technology, which enables us to deliver highly focused protons, spot-by-spot and layer-by-layer, encompassing the entire tumour with a reduced or even no dose to the adjacent healthy tissues. In cases such as this, where the tumour is in a risky location such as the base of the skull or in the lung, proton therapy delivers a beam of protons to disrupt the tumour and better target radiation to the size and shape of the tumour without damaging the surrounding healthy tissue. It has been proven to be successful in curing or controlling many cancers when used appropriately. Proton therapy reduces the immediate and long-term side effects of treatment in many patients, leading to not just an improvement in survival but also survivorship.”

Sharing her experience on the treatment received, Patient Ms Kancharla Akhila said, “I am very truly thankful to the Apollo Proton Cancer Centre team for their constant care and attention to give me a healthy life. I will always be grateful and thankful to them for giving me a new lease of.”

Ms Joshmitha said, “Being at APCC for my cancer treatment was the silver lining among the darkest of clouds in my life. I am grateful to my doctors and staff for being supportive and understanding of every need I had as a patient. I would strongly recommend the finest treatment to any friend who is hoping to win over cancer.”

“My treatment for cervico-medullary pilocytic astrocytoma at APCC was a holistic experience. The doctors and clinical staff were very considerate of my choices and had a detailed treatment plan in place. Intensity-modulated proton therapy was a game changer in my battle with a brain tumour. The environment was such that I didn’t feel like a hospital,” says Mr Navadiya Jemin Mansukhbhai, who was treated at APCC.

The major advantage of proton therapy treatment is that protons slowly deposit their energy as they travel towards the cancerous tumour and deposit most of the radiation dose directly in the tumour without damaging the body further thus maintaining healthy tissues and organs without any complications. Proton therapy has been shown to have excellent local control of various cancers located in some of the most difficult areas such as skull-base regions of the body which are otherwise difficult to treat. The latest breakthroughs in this technology including pencil beam scanning, highly precise image guidance and tremendous refinements in the machine set up have led to the adoption of this technology throughout the world in hospital settings in the last few years.

Proton therapy is being encouragingly adopted for the treatment of various cancers such as brain and spine tumours, skull base tumours, oral cancers, gastro-intestinal cancers, bone and soft tissue tumours, breast cancers, thoracic cancers (lung cancer), genitourinary cancers (prostate cancer) and predominantly in paediatric cancers except for leukaemia.

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