The Challenges of Lung Cancer Treatment

Lung cancer usually begins in the cells lining the bronchi, and often grows for a long time without producing symptoms. In time, the lung cancer may invade the wall of the bronchus, blood vessels, the esophagus, or nerves.

Since lung cancer - and lung cancer treatment - has the potential to affect so many delicate tissues in such a sensitive area of the body, it's important to protect healthy tissues from damaging radiation.

Lung cancer can be detected with chest x-rays, computerized chest tomography (CT), or positron emission tomography (PET). A biopsy is required to confirm the diagnosis.

Once lung cancer is diagnosed, local treatment is generally used in the very earliest stage of lung cancer, but combined therapy – including surgery and radiation like proton therapy – is often recommended for more advanced disease. If the lung cancer is operable, surgery is the choice for local therapy. If the disease is not operable, then radiation therapy is used.

The Advantage of Proton Therapy for
Lung Cancer Treatment

When treating lung cancer with traditional radiation, it can be difficult to deliver an effective dose without risking damage to healthy tissue. By using proton therapy for lung cancer treatment, physicians are able to deliver highly effective and very precise doses of protons to the exact location of the lung cancer.

The American Cancer Society estimates that 215,000 people were diagnosed with lung cancer in 2008.

Proton therapy now appears to be a reasonable treatment to offer patients whose cancer is limited to the chest. Trials performed at the University of Florida Proton Therapy Institute, MD Anderson Cancer Center and other centers demonstrate that proton therapy offers reduced normal lung and bone marrow exposure when compared with conventional photon (x-ray) therapy.

Reducing lung exposure is important because it allows us to increase the radiation dose delivered to the sites of cancer without increasing the risk of lung injury. Reducing bone marrow exposure may reduce treatment related fatigue and, when necessary, allow for the delivery of more intensive chemotherapy during or after proton therapy.

Currently, we are offering proton therapy for three groups of patients:

1. Patients with inoperable non-small cell lung cancer that has not spread outside of the chest.
2. Patients with limited cancers who may be surgically curable but who are not able to tolerate lung cancer surgery.
3. Patients with cancer recurrence in the chest after surgery whose cancer has not spread outside of the chest.

We currently are unable to offer proton therapy for lung cancers which have spread to the bone, brain or liver.

For us to evaluate a patient for possible proton therapy at the University of Florida Proton Therapy Institute, we request that the patient provide us with:

1. A brief medical history including dates of biopsies and or surgeries.
2. A pulmonary function test report.
3. A weight loss history.
4. A PET scan report as well as images on compact disk.
5. A pathology report (if available).

Proton therapy at the University of Florida Proton Therapy Institute is offered as part of a multidisciplinary program involving input from medical oncologists, pathologists, pulmonologists, thoracic surgeons, and diagnostic radiologists. Patients are ideally seen in our clinic on a Monday or Tuesday. Cases are usually discussed at a multidisciplinary thoracic oncology meeting on Thursday morning where treatment recommendations are made. All physicians at the University of Florida Proton Therapy Institute and Shands Jacksonville are University of Florida faculty.

Read more about the advantages of proton therapy for lung cancer treatment and contact us for more information.