A Proton Therapy Focused Radiation Oncology Practice.

Why Proton Therapy?

Because in many cases, they offer the possibility to be a better tool to put dose into the cancer and minimize dose to normal tissues that should not be treated. The goal of any treatment plan is to put the prescribed radiation into the cancer and minimize radiation for tissues that have no significant risk of cancer spread.

Below is a comparison of a one sided head and neck case. It is a chosen as it is one of the strongest examples where protons spare significant tissue outside of the target. The color overlay represents dose with the green and blue regions representing “low” but still very significant doses of radiation.

How is Proton Therapy Potentially “Better”? There are two main ways.

1. Protons treat to a prescribed depth and stop. X-rays keep going.

2. For each Proton beam, maximum dose is located in the tumor. In an external beam X-ray photon approach, often the maximum dose is outside of the target for each individual beam.

These two features allow proton therapy plans to be more efficient at delivering dose to the tumor in many cases. Less dose to normal tissues is always the goal in radiation oncology. As you see above, often proton plans can significantly reduce normal tissue radiation.

I want to be clear - they are not always better. While they almost always will reduce the total delivered dose to the patient, there are inherent differences between proton therapy and photon therapy. In simple terms, they are at least one more step complicated and you often need to have some good rationale based on specifics of the case that make protons have a reasonable opportunity to be advantageous.

My job while working at a proton facility is to try to 1) move the science forward via trial enrollment and research and 2) try to simply pick the best treatment modality for my patients. I have access to both proton therapy and to IMRT photon treatment and the job is to pick the best tool to fight your cancer.

If you have a cancer that I think should be treated elsewhere (for equipment or complexity reasons), I have numerous contacts in the field that work across the country and I’ll be the first to get you to the right person if that is what I think you need.

Contact Us:

At Proton Radiation Oncology, PLLC, we understand that finding the right physician and facility to have your cancer treated is a choice not to be taken lightly. We believe understanding all available treatment options for your cancer is a critical step. We are happy to meet with you in a detailed and customized review to explain your options and potential benefits of Proton Therapy for your individual cancer diagnosis.

Mark Storey MD
President Proton Radiation Oncology, PLLC

Radiation Facility information:

405.454.7978

Oklahoma Proton Center
5901 West Memorial Road
Oklahoma City, OK 73142
www.okcproton.com

Map Link to Facility

Prostate Cancer

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men.* As a physician, I’ve treated patients with high dose radiation for prostate cancer going to back to the year 2000. I was fortunate to work on the first randomized trial to show that doses higher than 70Gy were beneficial in increasing the prostate cancer cure rate. We’ve been advocates for men with prostate for nearly 2 full decades. Limiting side effects and improving long-term quality of life for bowel, bladder, and sexual function are critical in a disease where cure rates often exceed 90-95%.

breast cancer

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women*. With time, more and more frequently we are finding small nodes that require treatment and data has shown that comprehensive treatment improves survival. But comprehensive treatment is difficult using photons due to gaps in the dose and giving radiation to the heart that causes heart damage. Proton Therapy removes the gaps and reduces dose to the heart and for some select cases can be a large step improvement over IMRT breast cancer treatment in reducing dose to the heart and lungs.

cns Tumors

CNS tumors are a region where Proton Therapy is being used to attempt to improve outcomes. The benefit of reducing or eliminating dose to normal brain tissue is a clear advantage of Proton Therapy. Between our team and the affiliated physicians at The Oklahoma Proton Center, we have decades of experience in the treatment of both the common and rare tumors of the CNS and base of skull or sinus regions. Doses used with Proton Therapy often exceed what has been given with photon treatment for some CNS cases.

Pediatric Cancer

Unfortunately, cancers can appear in children. Radiation is often avoided due to the side effects, but when required for treatment it is essential that dose to the surrounding tissues be absolutely minimized. Proton Therapy often represents the Standard of Care for Pediatric Cancer Radiation. Your team at The Oklahoma Proton Center has decades of experience throughout all levels of our staff caring for delivering world class treatment for this critical group of patients.

lung cancer

Lung cancer causes more deaths in the US than any other cancer by about 3 fold. Too often, it is found once it has spread to lymph nodes in the chest and surgery can’t be performed. Those nodes sit near the esophagus, heart, and other major vessels that radiation can damage. Proton Therapy allows for fewer radiation fields to be used and in some cases can dramatically limit dose to the esophagus and heart compared to traditional photon plans. The goal is cure, but more and more, if not cure, we can turn the disease towards a pattern of a chronic disease.

gastrointestinal cancer

Tumors of the esophagus, stomach, pancreas, bile duct region, and liver sit in the center of the body surrounded by critical structures often in both the chest and abdomen. Doses are directly limited for these tumors due to these critical structures. There is increasing data, especially in esophageal cancer and liver cancers for the benefit of proton therapy. Stopping the beam and minimizing this unneeded dose to adjacent targets makes Proton Therapy a perfect fit for these lesions.

Pelvic tumors

Pelvic tumors of the cervix, uterus, rectum, anus, and bladder require control of the primary disease but also require radiation to the pelvic lymph nodes. Often these fields are large and include significant bowel, bladder, and bone dose that is unnecessary and this dose causes both acute and late side effects. For some of these cases, Proton Therapy allows for an opportunity for significant dose reduction to normal structures that have no risk of disease and to potentially lessen the effects on blood counts.

head and neck cancer

Head and Neck cancer is one of the fastest growing cancers in the US. The viral form of the disease occurs in younger and healthier patients than in the past. Side effects within the “low dose” regions of the plan causing hair loss, or burns to the lips and mouth so severe that patients bleed from the damage. Proton Therapy can drastically reduce dose to un-involved regions of the head of neck and oral cavity. I believe Proton Therapy should be a standard consideration for many of these patients to help in de-escalating treatment toxicity. 

Lymphomas

Tumors of the lymph nodes often present with very large volume masses. Chemotherapy is often a mainstay of treatment, but after chemotherapy radiation is often required for long term cure / control of the disease. Proton Therapy is a great treatment for this group of patients who we expect to often cure. It often reduces total dose to the patient and can be an important component of reducing second malignancies seen after treatment of the lymphoma or in decreasing long term heart damage from chest radiation especially in adolescent and young adults..

*Excluding skin cancer