Dr Srinivas Chilukuri
HYDERABAD: Cancer and its related treatment has always been developing over the years. With flexible cure centers set up around the globe treating the disease has become much easier. Likewise now it is all about Proton Beam Therapy that is used for head and neck cancer and brain tumor. To know more about this treatment CE got in touch with Dr Srinivas Chilukuri, Senior Consultant, Radiation Oncology, Apollo Proton Cancer Centre who explains to us in detail about this therapy.
On asking him about Proton Beam Therapy, he says,“You probably might have heard of radiation therapy in cancer. Nearly 2/3 of cancer patients require radiation therapy once they are diagnosed in the form of chemotherapy, surgery or radiation alone. Now with radiation it is basically a non-invasive form of treatment and it can eradicate cancer in several conditions and can be controlled. But with all the good done by radiation, there are also side effects.
Sometimes we are unable to give very high doses because of the fear of side effects and there are many recent techniques we can see less of these side effects but still a large majority of people do have a lot of side effects and unfortunately they are sometimes permanent as well.
Sometimes if it is a brain tumor you can have neuro cognitive memory disorder and hormone therapy if it is given in the chest. Sometimes lung and cardiac function may suffer, kidney function may suffer and then you can have infertility due to radiation. We want to avoid such collateral damage.
Normal radiation is x-rays and proton therapy uses high energy proton beams and we use them to treat tumors. The unique aspect of protons is that they stop and x- rays do not stop. Because protons stop we can make them stop within the tumor. With protons we can give zero doses and there mal side effects.”
Adding further about what kind of cancers can be treated with proton beam therapy, the doctor says,“Most common indications of proton therapy are brain tumors, pediatric cancers, skull base tumors, para spinal tumor and re-radiation. It is not just head and neck.
There are many other indications as well and it is not restricted to one or two indications. Because it is slightly more expensive and it is available only in Chennai and nowhere else in India we cannot treat all the patients and so we select the patients carefully and use that for treatment. Apollo Hospitals Chairman is looking to open a centre in Hyderabad as well. It is definitely being planned to be set up in the city.”
