A review of proton therapy – Current status and future directions

The original rationale for proton therapy was the highly conformal depth-dose distributions that protons are able to produce, compared to photons, which allow greater sparing of normal tissues and escalation of tumor doses, thus potentially improving outcomes. Additionally, recent research, which is still ongoing, has revealed previously unrecognized advantages of proton therapy. For instance, the higher relative biological effectiveness (RBE) near the end of the proton range can be exploited to increase the difference in biologically effective dose in tumors vs. normal tissues. Moreover, the smaller "dose bath", i.e., the compact nature of proton dose distributions has been found to reduce exposure of circulating lymphocytes and the immune organs at risk. There is emerging evidence that the resulting sparing of the immune system has the potential to improve outcomes. Protons, accelerated to therapeutic energies ranging from 70 to 250 MeV, are transported to the treatment room where they enter the treatment head mounted on a rotating gantry. The initially narrow beams of protons are spread laterally and longitudinally and shaped appropriately to deliver treatments. Spreading and shaping can be achieved by electro-mechanically for "passively-scattered proton therapy' (PSPT); or using magnetic scanning of thin "beamlets" of protons of a sequence of initial energies. The latter technique is used to treat patients with optimized intensity modulated proton therapy (IMPT), the most powerful proton therapy modality, which is rapidly supplanting PSPT. Treatment planning and plan evaluation for proton therapy require different techniques compared to photon therapy due, in part, to the greater vulnerability of protons to uncertainties, especially those introduced by inter- and intra-fractional variations in anatomy. In addition to anatomic variations, other sources of uncertainty in the treatments delivered include the approximations and assumptions of models used for computing dose distributions and the current practice of proton therapy of assuming the RBE to have a constant value of 1.1. In reality, the RBE is variable and a complex function of proton energy, dose per fraction, tissue and cell type, end point, etc. Despite the high theoretical potential of proton therapy, the clinical evidence supporting its broad use has so far been mixed. The uncertainties and approximations mentioned above, and the technological limitations of proton therapy may have diminished its true clinical potential. It is generally acknowledged that proton therapy is safe, effective and recommended for many types of pediatric cancers, ocular melanomas, chordomas and chondrosarcomas. Promising results have been and continue to be reported for many other types of cancers as well; however, they are based on small studies. At the same time, there have been reports of unforeseen toxicities. Furthermore, because of the high cost of establishing and operating proton therapy centers, questions are often raised about the value of proton therapy. The general consensus is that there is a need for continued improvement in the state of the art of proton therapy. There is also a need to conduct randomized trials and/or collect outcomes data in multi-institutional registries to generate high level evidence of the advantages of protons. Fortuitously, such efforts are taking currently place. Ongoing research is aimed at better understanding the biological and immunomodulatory effects of proton therapy and the consequences of the physical uncertainties on proton therapy and reducing them through image-guidance and adaptive radiotherapy. Since residual uncertainties will remain despite our best efforts, in order to increase the resilience of dose distributions in the face of uncertainties and improve our confidence in dose distributions seen on treatment plans, robust optimization techniques are being developed and implemented and continue to be perfected. Such research and continuing technological advancements in planning and delivery methods are likely to help demonstrate the superiority of protons.