ABSTRACT
Most paediatric non-hematologic malignancies have high radiation sensitivity, and thus radiotherapy plays an important role in treatment of these diseases. Proton therapy (PT) may be advantageous for paediatric patients due to its ability to reduce the radiation dose to healthy tissue close to the tumour. Secondary malignancy due to radiotherapy is a severe problem in paediatric patients. There is no threshold dose for avoidance of secondary cancer; therefore, all patients who receive radiotherapy have a risk for secondary cancer. In treatment of paediatric brain tumour, radiotherapy plays an important role because obtaining a sufficient surgical margin is difficult. Parental support is required, and this can create major physical and financial burdens, for which more assistance is needed. Intensity-modulated PT is more sophisticated than passive scanning, and this technique is likely to be widely applied for paediatric malignancies in the future to reduce the risk of late toxicity and secondary cancer.
