In 2018, badminton star Li Zongwei was diagnosed with nasopharyngeal cancer, which caused heated discussion, and many people felt sorry for him at that time, thinking that he would bid farewell to the field from now on. But just a few months later, he announced the success of the fight against cancer and returned to the field at a shocking speed.
In an interview, Li Zongwei said that he was undergoing proton therapy at Chang Gung Hospital in Taiwan, China, with 33 times of treatment, and successfully repelled cancer after treatment, but it also cost 9.36 million yuan, which should be said to be expensive.
So, what exactly is proton therapy? Which malignancies are suitable? Let's talk about this topic today.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="5" > proton therapy dose distribution is special, which can cause 2 to 5 times the blow to cancer cells</h1>
First, we know that for malignant tumors, traditional treatments include surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy, and the data show that about 70% of malignant tumors require radiation therapy at different stages of treatment, including combination therapy and radiation therapy alone.
At present, the most widely used clinical radiation therapy in China is photonic radiotherapy, which is the familiar high-energy X-ray or γ line. These traditional high-energy X-rays or γ lines in the elimination of malignant lesions at the same time, but also inevitably cause all normal tissues on the radiation path to varying degrees of damage, sometimes in order to protect some of the important normal tissues on the radiation path, have to reduce the amount of malignant tumor irradiation, which in turn caused the malignant tumor dose is insufficient, increasing the risk of local recurrence of tumors.
As one of the means of radiation therapy, proton heavy ion therapy has the advantage of its dose distribution compared with traditional photonic therapy! After careful calculations, proton therapy can complete such a dose distribution: less energy deposition in the front of the tumor, the tumor location causes high-energy particles to release most of the energy instantaneously, and then the energy decays rapidly, which is the Bragg peak of proton therapy.
In layman's terms, proton therapy has radiation that only plays a role in the tumor, and the damage to normal tissue is very small, which can protect normal tissue well and can also cause the maximum damage of the tumor.
In addition to the physical advantages mentioned above, proton heavy ion radiotherapy also has biological advantages, and its blow to tumor cells is 2-5 times stronger than that of traditional photons.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="26" > proton therapy that can accurately kill cancer cells, and the cost is not nearly 10 million</h1>
The question is, since proton heavy ion radiotherapy has such advantages, why is there very little such equipment in China? There is only one answer: high prices.
The cost of a proton heavy ion accelerator is as high as 1 billion yuan, the investment in building a proton heavy ion hospital is as high as 2 billion yuan, and the daily maintenance cost is as high as 50 million to 100 million yuan. If you add the relevant engineers, physicists and doctors, the cost is even more staggering. In a word: expensive cost, expensive maintenance, and lack of talent limit its development.
However, although the price of proton heavy ion radiotherapy is high, it is far from reaching Li Zongwei's sky-high price of 9.36 million yuan. At present, the cost of treatment at Shanghai Proton Heavy Ion Hospital in China is about 270,000 yuan per course, and in Japan it is about 3 million yen (about 200,000 yuan).
It is safe to say that in terms of proton heavy ion radiotherapy alone, Li Zongwei's cost can never be so high, as to why it is so high, it is likely to be because Li Zongwei said that 9.36 million is NT$, and the price of normal proton therapy is not as high as nearly 10 million.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="27" > proton therapy is more extensive than traditional chemotherapy, and the high cost is still a problem</h1>
In general, tumors with common photon radiotherapy indications are basically suitable for proton heavy ion radiation therapy, but their unique radiobiological and radiophysical properties make their scope of indications relaxed. It has a good effect on brain and spinal cord tumors, eye tumors, head and neck tumors, thoracic and abdominal tumors, pelvic tumors and pediatric tumors.
However, proton heavy ion radiotherapy is not omnipotent for malignant tumors, hematological malignant tumors such as leukemia, etc., the tumor has occurred in multiple distant metastases and metastatic foci ≥ 3, the same part has received radiation therapy or particle implants within 1 year, cavity organ malignant tumors such as esophageal cancer, stomach cancer, bowel cancer and other proton heavy ion radiotherapy is temporarily not considered.
It should be said that proton heavy particle radiation therapy has made new breakthroughs in many aspects of malignant tumors, for example, for nasopharyngeal carcinoma that recurs after traditional radiation therapy, because most of its tumor cells are relatively insensitive to radiation at this time, it is very challenging to carry out traditional photonic therapy.
In addition, the structure around the nasopharynx is complex, there are many important tissues and organs, and serious side effects such as nasopharyngeal mucosal necrosis, severe headaches in patients, and even death caused by heavy bleeding have seriously restricted the radiation therapy of traditional photons. At this time, the advantages of using heavy ion therapy appear: its relatively powerful 2-5 times biological effect, the relative concentration of ray energy can better carry out targeted blasting of locally recurrent malignant tumors, which on the one hand greatly reduces the side effects of radiotherapy, on the other hand, it also improves the lethality of radiation to malignant tumors.
Proton heavy ion radiotherapy also has a good effect on some benign lesions, such as wet fundus macular degeneration, a fundus disease, due to retinal neovascularization, resulting in repeated bleeding and leakage of fundus, due to repeated bleeding can lead to loss of vision.
At present, anti-VEGF drug therapy is the main treatment for wet fundus macular degeneration, but Asians are often anti-VEGF drugs insensitive PCV subtype (also known as polyposis choroidal vascular lesions), for such patients, only 1 proton heavy particle therapy is needed to solve the problem, is it not amazing?
In summary, proton heavy particle therapy can be seen as a cutting-edge technique for radiation therapy, with indications and damage to normal tissues superior to conventional radiotherapy. However, the high price is a stumbling block to its promotion. With the advancement of medical technology and security, it is hoped that proton therapy can enter medical insurance as soon as possible, reduce prices, and bring the dawn of cure to more cancer patients!
For more cancer and health-related knowledge, please continue to pay attention to [Dr. Li talks about cancer prevention]!