Sin S Y, Chen S N, Soong Y L, Tan H Q
Division of Radiation Oncology, National Cancer Centre Singapore, Singapore.
Duke-National University of Singapore, Graduate Medical School, Singapore.
Tech Innov Patient Support Radiat Oncol. 2025 Aug 5;35:100327. doi: 10.1016/j.tipsro.2025.100327. eCollection 2025 Sep.
Radiotherapy is the cornerstone for the treatment of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Due to its unique epidemiology and the location of the disease with neighbouring critical structures, conventional photon irradiation may result in significant long-term morbidities in patients. With increasing numbers of proton beam therapy (PBT) centres worldwide, patients with NPC now have an alternative option of irradiation that potentially gives equivalent disease control, yet significantly reduces the acute and long-term toxicities. The proper adoption of PBT in NPC requires a series of intricate procedures: pre-treatment preparation, treatment planning, advanced image verification and adaptive PBT. Each process is crucial to allow the proton beam deposit precise dose in Bragg peak's region, resulting in optimal planned target volume coverage while allowing maximum sparing of adjacent dose-limiting organs. Therefore, comprehensive protocols for these coordinated procedures have been developed at our centre to achieve optimal outcomes for patients with NPC.
放射治疗是鼻咽癌（NPC）治疗的基石。由于其独特的流行病学特征以及疾病所在位置与邻近关键结构的关系，传统光子照射可能会给患者带来显著的长期并发症。随着全球质子束治疗（PBT）中心数量的增加，鼻咽癌患者现在有了另一种照射选择，这种选择可能在控制疾病方面效果相当，但能显著降低急性和长期毒性。在鼻咽癌中正确采用质子束治疗需要一系列复杂的程序：治疗前准备、治疗计划、先进的图像验证和适应性质子束治疗。每个过程对于使质子束在布拉格峰区域沉积精确剂量都至关重要，从而实现对计划靶体积的最佳覆盖，同时最大程度地减少相邻剂量限制器官的受照剂量。因此，我们中心已制定了这些协调程序的综合方案，以实现鼻咽癌患者的最佳治疗效果。
