[barney]

Proton radiotherapy

by barney on Fri Jan 01, 2016 4:14 pm

I've been diagnosed with localized amyloidoma in the spine, but I think it is a bone plasma­cytoma. Mayo is recommending chemo. I read here at the Myeloma Beacon that radiation is best, but involves like two dozen sessions or fractionations. I perform physics research with high energy particle accelerators and know quite a bit about proton radiotherapy (PRT).

Does anyone know if proton radiotherapy would be advantageous over traditional radio­therapy as regards dose precision and reduction in the number of fractionations? Has anyone had proton radiotherapy for either amyloidoma or plasmacytoma treatment?

[NStewart]

Re: Proton radiotherapy

by NStewart on Mon Jan 04, 2016 3:11 pm

I just saw your question so I will answer with what I know.

The University of Pennsylvania, where I am treated, has proton therapy, but as far as I know they don't use it for bone lesions. It is being used for brain cancers in children, prostate cancer, some head and neck cancers, some gynecological cancers, and a research trial for some breast cancers. Those are the ones that I know about. It seems that it is only used with solid, soft tissue tumors at this point. Proton therapy is still a relatively new treatment modality so they are still researching what types of tumors respond well to it.

The number of doses of the regular fractionated radiation therapy depends on the size of the bone lesion, I think. I had radiation to a lesion in my left fibula and only had 6 doses. I had no side effects, such as skin involvement, because of low levels of radiation in each dose and because of the few number of doses. But, it did resolve the bone pain that I was experiencing from the lesion.

I hope this helps some. I'm not a scientist, but have worked closely with the radiation oncologists and people who have had radiation – both proton and regular fractionated radiation – in my job as a physical therapist who treated people with cancer. I was working at Penn when they built the proton therapy center there and attended a number of lectures informing us about what it was and how it differed from traditional radiation. It's a very exciting field of treatment.

Nancy in Phila

[barney]

Re: Proton radiotherapy

by barney on Sat Jan 16, 2016 1:45 pm

Thanks Nancy!

Since I posted this, I have heard of proton radio­ther­apy being used for plasma­cy­tomas. Just had a visit with my on­col­o­gist, and he and the docs at Mayo say it's definitely amyloidosis, and because PET hot spots are seen at 5 locations, they want me to do chemo. I am leaning toward radiation for the three large ones, and watch and wait on the two smaller ones. I am going to pursue proton radiotherapy and will update here.

[Multibilly]

Re: Proton radiotherapy

by Multibilly on Sat Jan 16, 2016 3:07 pm

Hi Barney,

Are you sug­gesting that you are going to pursue radiation / proton therapy in lieu of doing chemo, or as an adjunct to chemo??

[JimNY]

Re: Proton radiotherapy

by JimNY on Sun Jan 17, 2016 9:55 am

Hi Barney,

Is there any published research (journal articles) about proton radiotherapy for plasmacytomas? When I first saw your question a couple of weeks ago, I searched to see if there was any research on the topic, but wasn't able to find anything. That's why I'm wondering if you were able to find any.

I guess I'd also be interested to hear your thoughts on why proton radiotherapy should be, or might be, more effective than the standard radiation therapy used for plasmacytomas.

Thanks!