John-

Welcome to the site!

I finished IMRT almost two weeks ago. I had asked about proton therapy myself as I was hopeful I could do that form of radiation. The radiation oncologist explained to me that proton therapy is able to target a more specific area, and therefore is useful if you are trying to specifically avoid hitting some crucial structure. For example, if you have a tumor right against the spinal cord with proton therapy you can hit the tumor without causing any damage to the spinal cord. With IMRT, on the other hand, even though there is a specific targeted area which receives the brunt of the dose, there is also a surrounding area which receives some radiation also. In my case (mucoepidermoid cancer) they wanted to have this effect, as the idea is to kill any microscopic cells hiding out anywhere around where the tumor was. Proton therapy could have missed those. I don't know if the desired outcome of radiation therapy is the same for SCC or not, but you could ask your radiation oncologist about it. Hope this is of some help.