Pediatric Neoplasms

The things first you may be asking yourself. "What the heck is a neoplasm?" I know that because that was my first question when I began to read about it too.
A neoplasm is an abnormal mass of tissue as a result of neoplasia. That should clear it up, right?
Now, what's a neoplasia? It's an abnormal proliferation of cells that have leads going every which direction and are often cancerous, although not always.

The following from Technology in Cancer Research and Treatment, Volume 5, Number 2, April 2006.
In a study of patients having progressive or recurrent low-grade astrocytoma, proton radiation therapy was generally well tolerated and all children who achieved local control maintained their performance status. (Astrocytoma is cancer of the brain that originate in star-shaped brain cells called astrocytes). This outcome prevailed in a study of children treated with protons for optic-pathway glioma, a neoplasm for which adequate therapy offers excellent long-term survival rates, making it especially important to avoid treatment-related functional long-term sequelae. A comparison of proton, 3D photon, and lateral photon treatment plans revealed that the proton plans offered a high degree of conformity to target volumes, with steep dose gradients, leading to substantial normal-tissue sparing. Notably, we observed that even in small tumors, conformity of 3D photon irradiation was achieved only at the expense of a larger volume of normal tissues receiving moderate to low radiation doses.

One of the pieces of information that I received from my radiation/oncologist at MPRI was that he could take a tumor off the optic nerve and maintain the eyesight of the patient. I figured that if proton beam was that precise, that he could treat my prostate and leave other organs untouched. I was right.

Tomorrow I'll close this thread of posts with information about the future direction of proton beam therapy.

Have a good Wednesday.
Blessings,
Rick