Guest guest Posted September 11, 2007 Report Share Posted September 11, 2007 A new (at least to me) web site is up by Optivus, who vend the hardware/software packages for most proton therapy centers. The site has a good introduction to IMPT, Intensity Modulated Proton Therapy. See http://www.optivus.com/advances_impt.htm. I've heard the new technology is being installed at one of the three gantries at Loma . What will this do? Well, at last week's PCRI Prostate Cancer Conference, in Dr. Rose's presentation on IMRT and Brachytherapy, he stated that in his opinion the modern computer controlled IMRT photon radiation was fully equivalent to conformable proton therapy in both treatment outcomes and patient side effects. Thus he would not be discussing proton treatment in his talk. However, he said when the proton treatment added the capability for intensity modulation of a finely focused proton beam (the advantage of IMRT over the older forms of external radiation), then photon treatment would be have an advantage over IMRT photon treatment with respect to patient morbidities (side effects). So stay tuned. I believe the MD Proton Center has the IMPT capabilities as well as the new proton center in Sarasota Florida. However, these facilities are new enough to not yet have established track records for their outcomes. We should expect publications from them on initial results in a year or so. It takes patience to see credible results of research. Remember, a report in 2007 on the 8-year outcomes of a given treatment means that 9 to 10 year-old, or older, technology was used on the patients whose outcomes were studied. The Best to You and Yours! JonSee what's new at AOL.com and Make AOL Your Homepage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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