A review on recent data that PBT for upper GI cancers may decrease acute toxicity and late complications and improve treatment compliance.

The authors examined proton therapy dosimetric benefits, published clinical data and ongoing clinical trials about esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, liver cancer and pancreatic cancer, and concluded that given the accruing data showing a strong relationship between clinical outcomes and low dose received by organs at risk, there is a strong rationale to consider PBT, while not all patients likely benefit from PBT, mounting retrospective data indicate that ongoing and future clinical trials may demonstrate that PBT provides clinically meaningful benefit for a subset of patients with GI cancers.