Lancet study favors proton radiotherapy over standard chemotherapy

A study in The Lancet Oncology was supportive of proton radiotherapy, saying it is safe, or perhaps safer than conventional chemotherapy in the fight against cancer, at least among children with the most common malignant brain cancer (medulloblastomas). All 59 children received both forms of treatment. "Our findings suggest that proton radiotherapy seems to result in an acceptable degree of toxicity and had similar survival outcomes to those achieved with photon-based radiotherapy. Although there remain some effects of treatment on hearing, endocrine, and neurocognitive outcomes--particularly in younger patients--other late effects common in photon-treated patients, such as cardiac, pulmonary, and gastrointestinal toxic effects, were absent," the authors wrote. The arena earned med tech's largest financing last year (and one of the biggest overall), when Chinese investors HOPU Investments and YuanMing Capital led a $200 million round in anticancer proton therapy systems maker Mevion Medical. More