In the recovery room of the Antoine Lacassagne Cancer Center in Nice, a mother watches over her little boy. The child was anesthetized to remain still during the treatment with “Proteus One”. This big machine, whose name evokes the universe of a science fiction film, makes it possible to carry out proton therapy, a ultra-precise form of radiotherapy.
“There’s the anesthesiologist watching them all the time, so he’s going to wake up pretty quickly, luckily, explains Jérôme Doyen, head of the Mediterranean Institute of Proton Therapy. And we’re going to watch him like that for half an hour, an hour. The parents are often next door.”
Proton therapy is particularly indicated for treating tumors in children, continues the doctor, and allows “Limit long-term complications because fortunately they have a very long life expectancy. And we mainly have children from the south of France, but also from Spain and a little bit from Romania.”
The huge advantage of protons is that they only target the tumor. “Proteus One” thus avoids damaging the surrounding organs. You still have to steer the machine well. This is where a 3D scanner comes in. A combination of two techniques that the center Antoine-Lacassagne is the first to use in France.
In the proton therapy room, the little boy gave way to a sixty-year-old suffering from inoperable abdominal cancer. She comes from Strasbourg to benefit from this extraordinary treatment for two months. The radiotherapist follows the operations from the control room: “We see the fate of the tumor on the spine, which is exactly where we wanted. And the same, the digestive tract which is exactly where we wanted you. We can start.”
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Behind the glass, after 20 minutes completely motionless watching the huge treadmill and the arms of this 120-tonne machine turn, Anne-Marie comes out of there impressed: “It’s very impressive, really. Because these machines spinning… And then you think, ‘What are we doing? What are they doing to us now?’ And then, you don’t feel anything. If the noise, the noise, it sounds like an elevator falling, an explosion. There, it looks like I’m at NASA here.” she confides with a smile.
The success rate is identical to that of conventional radiotherapy, but thanks to the protons which stop at the tumor and the scanner which makes it possible to direct the machine, the patients do not suffer from sometimes very debilitating side effects.