Subtitle
Proton beam therapy in rectal cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
This review article examined eight original studies with a total of 127 patients. There was significantly less irradiated small bowel with PBT compared to 3DCRT and IMRT (p < 0.00001 and p = 0.02, respectively). Similar dosimetric results were observed for bladder and pelvic bone marrow. Three studies reported clinical and oncological results for PBT in recurrent rectal cancer with overall survival reported as 43 %, 68 % and 77.2 %, and one study in primary rectal cancer with 100 % disease free survival.