Proton Beam Therapy (PBT) and Evaluative Commissioning in Protons (ECIP):
PBT is an advanced radiotherapy technique. There are two National Health Service (NHS) PBT treatment centres in the United Kingdom, in Manchester and London. The NHS is committed to ensuring the best use of this limited resource by investigating which patients will benefit from PBT. ECIP is a programme of studies exploring the role of PBT in different types of cancer funded by NHS England. ECIP studies are not randomised, eligible patients will be offered PBT. Any eligible UK patient can be referred, and accommodation is available for patients who don't live close to a PBT centre. The main benefit of PBT, compared with standard photon radiotherapy, is predicted reduction in radiation dose to surrounding healthy tissues. With photon radiotherapy, some radiation passes beyond the target area, affecting healthy tissues and causing side-effects. With PBT, the radiation dose stops within the target area, causing less damage to surrounding tissues, and limiting side effects.
SUPERMAN:
SUPERMAN is a study within the ECIP programme. It is sometimes not entirely clear whether PBT or photon radiotherapy is better for the treatment of a patient with abdominal neuroblastoma. The aim of SUPERMAN is to choose the best radiotherapy technique and to better understand how to monitor and adapt PBT for these patients.