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World J Gastrointest Surg. Jul 27, 2025; 17(7): 106767
Published online Jul 27, 2025. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.v17.i7.106767
Proton beam therapy for esophageal cancer compared to existing treatments, including X-ray therapy and surgery
Takashi Ono, Masashi Koto
Takashi Ono, Masashi Koto, Department of Radiation Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, Yamagata University, Yamagata 990-9585, Japan
Takashi Ono, Department of Radiation Oncology, Southern Tohoku Proton Therapy Center, 7-172, Yatsuyamada, Koriyama, Fukushima 963-8052, Japan
Author contributions: Ono T designed the overall concept and outline of the manuscript, wrote, and edited the manuscript and review of literature; Koto M supervised.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Takashi Ono, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, Yamagata University, 2-2-2 Iida-Nishi, Yamagata 990-9585, Japan. abc1123513@gmail.com
Received: March 6, 2025
Revised: March 30, 2025
Accepted: May 19, 2025
Published online: July 27, 2025
Processing time: 139 Days and 3.8 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Despite medical advances, esophageal cancer has a poor prognosis. Recently, there have been many reports on proton beam therapy combined with chemotherapy. Compared to X-ray therapy, proton beam therapy can reduce toxicity and may lead to long-term survival while maintaining the quality of life. Some reports suggest that it may be possible to achieve results comparable to those of surgery, although this is premised on an environment in which appropriate post-recurrence treatment can be performed. Proton beam therapy plays a significant role in the treatment of esophageal cancer in an aging society.