Geneva, 15 August (EFE) – On Tuesday, a 67-year-old patient with esophageal cancer was treated with proton therapy (proton radiation therapy) at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Switzerland, the European body that supports this therapy. Part of a study to reduce lung complications from conventional radiation therapy.
Esophageal cancer is the eighth most common cancer in the world.
The treatment lasted a total of five weeks and was the first of its kind in Switzerland for esophageal cancer, as the Swiss institute had previously used proton therapy on patients with brain, head, neck, spine and soft tissue tumors. organize.
The agreement was carried out within the framework of a collaboration between the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI and the Radiation Oncology of the University Hospital Zurich to determine the potential benefit of protons in radiotherapy for esophageal cancer.
In most cases, esophageal tumors are treated in combination with chemotherapy and radiation, however, the latter often causes complications of varying severity in surrounding organs such as the lungs, causing pneumonia and other conditions.
Unlike the X-rays used in traditional radiation therapy, protons physically penetrate tissue with much greater precision, so they primarily attack tumors, leaving healthy tissue located near them largely unaffected, the scientific entity said.
A total of 19 European universities, hospitals and research centers are participating in this clinical study, which hopes to treat about 400 patients with non-metastatic esophageal cancer, 20 of whom will be treated in Switzerland.Effie
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