Proton-Beam Irradiation for the Cancer Patient: An Approach to Optimal Therapy and Normal-Tissue Sparing

The development of a hospital-based proton-beam therapy system at Loma Linda University Medical Center is one step of a historical trend toward more precise radiation therapy. It exploits available technology and, in doing so, may point the way toward other, similar facilities; it is hoped that it may also point the way to true selective cell irradiation. In its present form it offers patients an opportunity for effective cancer control with reduced side effects. As an instrument of precision, it allows for physical, radiobiological, and clinical investigations not previously attainable and is, therefore, intended as a worldwide resource as well as a treatment center. As research accumulates and results are published, a better-defined role for proton-beam radiation therapy is expected to become apparent and further exploitation of protons most likely will be undertaken. The Loma Linda facility, then, represents not so much a culmination as a beginning. 43 refs., 10 figs.