Clinical investigation of indications for proton therapy

The indications for curative treatment with proton therapy were investigated by the clinical results of 31 cancer patients treated with proton beams between 1983 and 1985 at the Particle Radiation Medical Science Center of Tsukuba University. Many locally extended, radioresistant lesions, lesions with large volume and small radiocurable lesions in this series revealed sufficient improvement without definite late damage in the surrounding normal tissues. This clinical result suggests that proton beam treatment could be applied to lesions in a much wider range for curative purposes as compared with conventional radiotherapy. This study is to be continued further. (author)