Proton Beam radiation is an older technology that has been in use in the United States since the 1950’s. Because it is new to Florida, some patients have been interested in comparing this form of radiation therapy to newer and more precise forms of radiation therapy, such as Real-Time Prostate Seed Implants and photon therapy with IGRT.

Current studies show that patients treated with proton radiation therapy suffer much higher cancer recurrence rates, have more long-term complications, and have a greater risk of developing radiation induced cancers than those treated with seed implants. In addition, proton therapy is very time consuming (9 weeks of daily treatment are required), costly (more than $100,000), and not covered by many insurance plans.

In spite of 50 years of use, there is unfortunately very little clinical data published on proton radiation in medical journals. One can only assume that the lack of published data is indicative of the poor results from protons. In contrast to proton radiation, seed implants and photon radiation (IMRT and IGRT) have been extensively evaluated in hundreds of well known and accepted scientific papers published in major peer reviewed medical journals. The few available studies on proton radiation are primarily from a single institution in Loma Linda, California, with a limited number of patients and very short follow-up times that are inferior to most other treatments. Only 5 year cure rates for proton therapy have been published, compared to multiple institutions publishing their 10 to 15 year outcomes with seed implants.

For all of these reasons, most major cancer centers throughout the world have decided not to pursue the less effective proton technology and instead have focused their attentions on more innovative and successful seed implant and IGRT programs for the treatment of prostate cancer.