Treating Pancreatic Cancer with Proton Therapy

For most people, protons are those positive sub-atomic particles they stopped thinking about almost immediately after middle school chemistry class. But, for some patients with pancreatic cancer, there is another positive aspect of protons worth considering—proton therapy for pancreatic cancer.

Proton therapy is a non-invasive medical treatment that uses a beam of high-speed protons to destroy the DNA of cancer cells. This kills the cell and therefore prevents it from multiplying.

For pancreatic cancer patients, the precision of proton therapy treatment adds to the positive results of killing cancer cells. Proton therapy for pancreatic cancer is effective because the beam of protons can be adjusted to target very specific areas, making it perhaps the most advanced treatment for cancer tumors of the pancreas. Proton therapy allows doctors to target radiation doses into the tumor while avoiding harming cells in the nearby liver, kidneys and spinal cord.

Conventional radiation treatment is limited by the amount and frequency of radiation doses it can safely deliver. But with proton therapy for pancreatic cancer, the protons release their energy directly into the pancreatic tumor, limiting the radiation dose beyond that tumor, which causes less damage to surrounding tissue and organs and causes fewer side effects.

Proton Therapy at Penn Medicine

The Roberts Proton Therapy Center is the only center in the Philadelphia region, and one of the few in the world that offers patients pencil beam scanning. Pencil beam scanning is the procedure of tuning a proton beam to a precise range and intensity. With proton therapy for pancreatic cancer, doctors can use this beam to paint the tumor with a powerful dose of extremely targeted radiation.

The Roberts Proton Therapy Center is also the only center in the world that offers multi-leaf collimator precision. The collimator is a device that shapes the proton beam to match a 3-D profile of a patient’s tumor, allowing for proton delivery in the exact shape of the tumor.

More effective treatment with fewer side effects and complications. Learn more about proton therapy for pancreatic cancer at the Roberts Proton Therapy Center.