Dr. Brandi Page presents a head and neck cancer case that demonstrates the benefits of proton therapy and Johns Hopkins' multidisciplinary approach to treatment.
one of the best things about proton radiation is the fact that you have no exit dose. And in particular and and around the head and neck area. There are so many important structures that can and should be spared and we have a powerful opportunity to utilize proton radiotherapy for that clinical fact. For example, if I'm treating a nasal cavity cancer, I can avoid um exit dose in and around the brain, in and around the hippocampus, the memory center, the pituitary gland, the optic nurse proton radiation therapy has an incredible potential to reduce side effects in the head and neck area. Some of the most um pertinent examples in in the acute term setting during the treatment are the reduction and potential pain and therefore the amount of pain medication the patient needs to be on in the long term, reducing the amount of dose to the saliva glands can help reduce the amount of long term or permanent dry mouth that patient has dry mouth can affect a patient greatly in terms of dental health and quality of life when they're eating. Um And the second thing that's really important is the reduction of potential um secondary malignancies. Secondary malignancies could potentially, because by unnecessary dose spillage of exit dose into areas that didn't need to be treated and potentially reducing the possibility that someone could develop cancer from their treatment in the future is is a really powerful thing. So when a patient is referred to johns Hopkins, they're not just referred to one person, They're getting everyone behind the scenes, they're getting um the collaborative physicians. So for example, um I try to have my patients that I meet their case presented at our multidisciplinary tumor board to get opinions from multiple surgeons and medical oncologists, radiologists, pathologists, these um pieces of input from other providers and different disciplines at Hopkins can really make a difference in giving the best care possible when a patient sent to me for an opinion or advice, um I usually like to meet that patient where they are and find out what their goals are, whether it's they just want an opinion about the care they already plan to have or whether they want to be treated here. Regardless, the person behind all the question is who I care about when a referring physician sends a patient to our care. Um The first thing that we want to do is partner with them. The referring physician knows the patient before I know that patient. So they're part of that family of medical care providers that we want to invite to the table.
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