Geneva (EFE) – A 67-year-old patient with esophageal cancer was treated at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Switzerland with proton therapy (proton radiation therapy) as part of a European study dedicated to Reduce cancer risk in cancer patients. Pulmonary complications from conventional radiation therapy.
Esophageal cancer is the eighth most common cancer in the world.
The therapy, which lasts a total of five weeks, is the first of its kind in Switzerland to treat esophageal cancer, as the scientific institute has previously used it 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 Department of the University Hospital Zurich to determine the potential benefit of protons in radiotherapy for esophageal cancer.
In most cases, esophageal tumors are treated with a combination of chemotherapy and radiation, but the latter often leads to complications of varying severity in surrounding organs, such as the lungs, leading to pneumonia and other types of illness.
Unlike X-rays in traditional radiation therapy, protons physically penetrate tissue with much greater precision, so they primarily attack tumors, leaving healthy tissue located near the tumor largely unaffected, the scientific entity said.
A total of 19 European universities, hospitals and research centers are participating in this clinical study, hoping to treat 400 patients with non-metastatic esophageal cancer, 20 of whom will be treated in Switzerland.