Practice of proton and heavy ion radiotherapies for head and neck malignancies

Abstract

Radiotherapy is an important therapeutic method in the management of head and neck cancer. However, since the head and neck region has many important functions of the human body, radiotherapy may cause serious sequelae. Proton and heavy ion radiotherapies have better radiophysical and biological properties compared with conventional proton beam and are beneficial to tumor control and protection of normal tissue. The advantages of proton and heavy ion radiotherapies have been demonstrated in soft tissue tumors (especially skull base chordoma and chondrosarcoma), malignant melanoma, and adenoid cystic carcinoma resistant to conventional protons in the head and neck region, and the safety of proton and heavy ion radiotherapies have been confirmed in reirradiation for recurrent tumors. Key words: Head and neck neoplasms/radiotherapy; Radiotherapy, proton; Radiotherapy, heavy ion; Indication of adaptation; Security