Proton vs Photon Radiation

Are you sure that they may use a proton beam to treat your condition? Usage of proton radiation is rare, it requires special equipment (as far as I know, access to accelerators). Proton beam can be easily focused, so it is used for treatment of localized cancers. Protons also are effectively absorbed by tissues, and thus energy is deposited locally, but the tissue damage is much greater than that one caused by high-energy photons. Please verify with your radiologist if that's the options offered to you, because usually they radiate a big area of the breast, and they usually use high-energy x-rays (photons) for that. There may be some clinical trials  in which they use a proton beam to target a tumor itself.  

I'm sorry, resolution is not high enough for me to read from the photo. If you have a localized tumor in the breast, they usually surgically remove it, then irradiate the whole breast with x-rays. Are you in a trial when they shrink the tumor, and then irradiate the site? Did they surgically remove the tumor before offering photon vs. proton beam irradiation? Are you close to Berkeley, Livermore, Jet labs on East coast, Chicago, or  Michigan, where there are nuclear research facilities with big accelerators?  If you think it's appropriate, please share more info on your case, because the choice that you face is not trivial.

Targeted proton beam  irradiation may cause less damage to the healthy tissues away from the irradiation site, but more localized damage. Photon irradiation damages approximately one quarter of the torso uniformly. I have a detailed analysis of the photon beam irradiation in the thread titled "my take on rads": https://community.breastcancer.org/forum/70/topics/845654?page=1#idx_6

I am in the middle of Proton Therapy in Oklahoma City. I just completed 12 out of 34 rounds. I chose this because it won't damage my heart and lungs. The beam is concentrated and brass rings are created for the area I need treated. I was diagnosed as stage 11B (++-). I had 16 rounds of chemo, 4 a/c, and 12 taxol followed by a lumpectomy at MD Anderson in Houston.

A also know of two ladies who now have heart damage due to traditional radiation from the spray.

Best of luck to you. I know its a lot to take in. I think this whole crazy experience is like drinking from a fire hose.

I hear you, Kali44. We are asked to make decisions that we are not qualified to make, and we are not given all info that we need to in order to do it. If I would have had a localized tumor, I would probably look into proton radiation if it was offered to me. Radiation is for local control only, thus it does not make sense to me to irradiate more than the tumor bed and some tissues around it. I wrote my post on rads upon someone's request to look at rads from my professional standpoint. The gist is that  with photon radiation you cannot avoid scattering and thus the exposure of body parts other than the breast itself and auxillary lymph nodes. The radiation dose received  by the  heart, lungs, parts of the digestive tract, thyroid,  and neck may be quite significant. This can  lead to side effects other than radiation burns and fatigue.

I will start radiation therapy as soon as the PS inserts and start filling the temporary implant. When I had the interview with the RO, she never told me about proton or photon radiation. But I know that now and I can choose. I hope they have the equipment so that I can make this decision. Even though proton radiation maybe problematic for the skin, I would choose it over the short and long term side effects of the photon beams. As Dragonsnake has pointed out, the photon passes thru skin, reaches other parts and burns them. The damage is more general. I will have reconstruction of the breast after I finish it and I let the PS use some of the skin of the left breast. And even though, the radiation team will protest, I will ask for the protection around my thyroid because I don't need rad there.

Thank you for the information. I will look for info about the proton and photon rads and the equipment that produce them. And if I have to change the center, I will look for the less damage to myself.

I have no idea if my insurance would pay, but I see that there is a proton radiation center within 30 minutes if my house (in light traffic). My cancer is on my left so greater precision around the heart and lungs would be a plus. Has anyone found a website that does a good job of addressing the pros and cons of each? Is proton therapy only available in the 5x per week for 6 weeks format?

Is it still a whole breast treatment? I strongly considered a BMX because I wear an F cup, but ultimately choose a lumpectomy. That means I have a lot of area to radiate and that's scary. Thanks!

When I looked into a proton therapy trial as an alternative to standard photon radiation therapy, I learned that an important difference is that proton therapy is a partial breast treatment as opposed to whole breast. So it is important to ask whether you are a good candidate for partial. I ultimately chose standard whole breast irradiation because of uncertainty about the appropriateness of partial for ILC, as it can spread in hard-to-detect ways. Also, I knew with WBI some axillary lymph nodes would be in the field, and I wanted them zapped because of isolated tumor cells in the sentinel node. I also asked about skin effects, and was told proton would be similar to WBI, but in a smaller area.

A link to the National Association for Proton Therapy map of proton therapy centers in the United States:

http://www.proton-therapy.org/map.htm