A start has been made - proton therapy will help children with oncology
In St. Petersburg, the Proton Therapy Center at the Sergei Berezin Medical Institute accepted for treatment first patient. They became a 13-year-old teenager in need of treatment of a brain tumor. For the boy, we developed a personalized treatment plan that is designed for a month.
Doctors estimate the boy's chances of recovery as quite favorable. The forecasts of specialists are positive.. Earlier, the boy was treated in Israel, but Israeli experts themselves recommended to go to St. Petersburg, since the child has enough difficult case and proton radiation therapy is the most suitable option for it.
The proton center is the first in Russia. It was built last year. The center is capable of receiving up to 800 cancer patients a year.
According to doctors, almost half of the patients will be children, because proton therapy is better for them than conventional radiation therapy. Proton treatment avoids secondary cancerwhich often appears at the site of irradiation after 15–20 years.
Today in Russia about 2 thousand children need such treatment.
Today, proton therapy is considered the most modern method of treating cancer. Proton beams destroy the DNA of malignant cells and eliminate their growth. According to the laws of physics, protons allow a greater amount of radiation to be delivered to the tumor cells. When this is healthy adjacent tissues and organs remain unaffected. And this is the main difference between this method and traditional radiation therapy.
For children, this method of treatment is recommended in cases where the tumor formation is located too close to important organs - to the heart, brain, kidneys, spinal cord and in some other cases.