Proton therapy in Argentina: What are the advances in nuclear medicine in the country?

In its natural habit, the Unit for Diagnostics and Treatment against the Cancer of the CEMIC, the doctor Berta Roth received from DEF to explain the work that is done together with his professional team. “We have distinguished treatment techniques, which are of lesser importance to the mayor”, he explained and added: “How much more do his techniques require, a mayor works to design the treatment and, in his case, a mayor’s precision and a benefit for the patient ”.

Berta Roth, specialist in radiotherapy, was appointed Director-General of the Instituto Oncológico “Ángel Roffo” between 2007 and 2011 at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA). He is currently the Scientific Assessor and Director of the CEMIC Radiotherapy Residence and teaches at Distant Universities of our country and beyond.

Roth emphasizes that cancer is the primary cause of death between the ages of 35 and 65, “precisely the era in which we are most active in our social and labor life”. To seriously treat this pathology, it is necessary to carry out effective campaigns from the State, a modern sanitary infrastructure and the incorporation and training of new human resources. In this sense, a hit was created in 2010 by the National Institute of Cancer, an initiative in which the Roffo Institute participated as one of its major promoters. “The patient with this type of pathology should be treated in oncology institutes and, since more specialized sean and amount more technology tengan, more result va to be the problem. With new technologies, in addition, one can reduce by 20% the mortality rate for cancer ”, added.

THE COMPLEJIDAD DEL TRATAMIENTO ONCOLÓGICO

-What are the oncological treatments that exist in the current state and how does radiotherapy work?

-There are three types of treatment: surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. 60% of patients require, at some point, their treatment, radiotherapy. Some times, radiotherapy is curative in its own way; in other cases, it combines with surgery or chemotherapy; and also for palliative care. The complex radiology, entones, a very important function in the oncological treatment. High-tech platforms are required and the treatments are personalized each time, according to the molecular interactions that present the tumor.

-How are the different types of tumors on board?

-Everything from them was operated on surgically. Without embarrassment, the hecho of extracting an organ can become secular. If, for example, one has to surgically intervene in a laryngeal tumor, then the patient’s problems arise in the disease. Therefore, the priority is to preserve the organ of the best possible way for it to function and that the patient can have a greater quality of life.

-What difference does it make between traditional radiotherapy and proton therapy treatments?

-In radiotherapy, we treat patients with these types of energy: the photons and the hadrons, inside the cells are located the protons. Traditional radiotherapy uses the photons: it transports radiation into high doses and attracts all the body. In the case of protons, the difference between the photons, no trace of the body; has a fast speed and, while the van loses, deposits its energy. It is what is known, technically, as “Bragg’s pico”. The protons deposited on the mayor’s energy will be detained, say, at the end of the trayecto. As part of this point of calculation, it is possible to reduce the volume of the organ that we need to treat and exclude the remainder of the cancerous organs. There is a lot of mayor’s precision and homogeneity in radiation.

-Which types of tumors are related to proton therapy preference?

–In general, their pueden tratar todos los tumores. Well, as it is a new treatment, complex and proton therapy teams at its most costly, if applied all over the place are immense, specifically in pediatric tumors. In the 60s and 70s, 40% of patients had a pediatric tumor. ‘N Deel van 2006 tot 2007, el calculo ya comenzó a ser de un 80%. This means that the increase in precision and advances in technology will not go away, it will increase tumor control. This type of treatment for rare tumors, as well as melanomas in the ovaries, which, when treated with surgery, can also affect the loss of the ocular globe.

UN SUEÑO HECHO REALIDAD

The Roth doctor’s paper is on the front page of the future proton therapy center in our country. “There is no such team in Latin America,” he said. Concerning the restrictive provisions, it was decided to conclude its proposal, contacting the National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA). Pudo traveled to the exterior to share other experiences and, in 2014, edited a plan for the construction of the Argentine Center of Proton Therapy. As of this moment, the CNEA initiated talks with the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) for the installation of the center and recommended to INVAP the purchase of the teams. The center will be located in front of the Faculty of Veterinary Sciences, at the intersection of the Nazca and San Martín avenues, adjacent to the Nuclear Diagnostic Center and adjacent to the Roffo Institute.

“The proposal is not only to train the proton therapy teams, we will combine them with radiotherapy equipment based on photons, to provide adequate treatment for each patient”, he explained. There will also be the training of professionals, for which the initial support of a specialist specialist will be planted.

“We only need treatment, so the new center will have a scientific system,” he said. “It will be a model, with research and development, that will give Argentina a vanguard and allow it to burn a very interesting therapeutic drug,” he concluded.

* This note was written by a periodical editor DEF.

LEA MÁS