Judy,

I had protons on 2014 for head and neck metasteses. At that time, besides other cancers, in regards to ours it was only given for certain cancers like brain, skull base and metatasric head and neck cancer with prior radiation. MD Anderson was doing studies with head and neck cancer outside this group, some as initial radiation treatment. I believe it has changed since then.

It was very time consuming, and only had several spots to hit. Took anywhere from 20 to 45 minutes to get the set-up right. The radiation took a few minutes, if that! Some initial head and neck cancers need a broader area like my first IMRT hit 17 spots bilaterally. Although protons could do that, I could only imagine how long that would take for set up.

There is a newer type of Protons, called IMPT, that does the set up like IORT and can hit multiple spots, but there may be only 7 locations in the U.S. that has that, and again, it may not be for all.

Good luck with your search, and you’re doing right by asking, and seeing about your options.