The Clinical Perspective: Does Proton/Ion Beam Therapy Work?

There are clear clinical situations, including pediatric cancers, where the superior physical properties of protons are sufficient to justify their use. For many common solid tumors in adults, however, it is not clear that the superior dose distributions from protons result in measurable clinical benefit. Solid data are required to allow clinicians to appropriately use this expensive, scarce treatment modality. This talk will discuss the need for rigorous, well-designed clinical trials.