According to a recent media report, cancer patients in India face twin challenges when it comes to accessing proton beam therapy (PBT): there are not enough facilities offering the treatment, and the cost can run into tens of lakhs of rupees.
- The PBT is considered a viable alternative to radiation for treating solid tumours, especially for head and neck cancers.
What is a proton beam therapy?
- Proton therapy, also called proton beam therapy, is a type of radiation therapy. It uses protons rather than x-rays to treat cancer.
- A proton is a positively charged particle. At high energy, protons can destroy cancer cells. Like x-ray radiation, proton therapy is a type of external-beam radiation therapy.
- It painlessly delivers radiation through the skin from a machine outside the body. While radiation can prove toxic to the whole body, protons can destroy cancer cells precisely by targeting tumours, thus saving adjoining organs.
- Apollo Hospital is the only centre in the whole of South and West Asia offering the PBT.
- With the Indian government shelving a project to install a PBT unit in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (Jhajjar), there is a huge unmet need for access to the treatment.
- Currently there are 42 PBT machine installations in the U.S., followed by Europe (35), Japan (26), China (seven), Taiwan (three) and South Korea (two), while India has only one.
