The Proton Therapy Center within Samsung Medical Center(SMC)’s Cancer Hospital has treated 500 patients since it began operation a year ago, and the number of treatments has also exceeded 9,000 cases, SMC said Friday.

According to SMC_{삼성서울병원}, proton therapy is mainly used for liver cancer, head and neck cancer, brain tumor, and lung cancer. Proton therapy is selectively treating the tumor site while minimizing the amount of radiation exposed to the surrounding healthy tissue.

In the case of liver cancer, cancer cells in 70 percent of the patients who received the proton therapy were destroyed, and only 10 percent of the cancer cells have enlarged again.

In particular, SMC applies scanning proton therapy, the so-called next-generation proton therapy, to more than 90 percent of the total treatments, which is unprecedented in the world except for the recently opened U.S. Mayo Clinic, it said. ​​​​​​

Samsung Medical Center’s proton therapy has shown excellent results in treating a variety of cancer over the past year.

SMC has successfully treated a large tumor more than 10 cm, which is hard to treat by conventional X-ray therapy, by using proton therapy. The proton therapy is far more helpful for patients with hepatitis B or C or hepatocellular carcinoma with liver cirrhosis than X-ray therapy.

"Since the introduction of proton therapy, we have been taking care of patients with liver cancer who could not be treated with X-ray due to poor liver function,” said Park Hee-chul_박희철, associate professor of Department of Radiation Oncology. "We are still cautious because of the short duration of proton therapy for liver cancer, but will do our best to make proton therapy a good alternative for patients with liver cancer.”

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