One of the main risks of radiation therapy in children is radiation damage to healthy tissue and secondary cancers that may occur. Secondary tumors that occur 10-15 years after the treatment of patients who received conventional radiation therapy in childhood lead to the death of patients or cause them to receive cancer treatment again.

Thanks to the pen beam scanning method used in proton therapy, only cancerous cells are irradiated and harmful side effects that may occur in many cases are avoided. Studies conducted in the USA since the 1990s have shown that proton beam therapy does not cause a mental or psychological effect on children. The risk of developing secondary tumors after the treatment is between 1 and 4 percent and carries a risk of 8 to 10 times lower when compared to traditional radiation methods.

Because of the factors mentioned above, proton therapy is always the preferred treatment method in pediatric cancer cases compared to other radiation treatments.

Proton therapy is performed under anesthesia in pediatric patients younger than six years of age. It is essential for children to be completely still in order to irradiate with micrometer precision in pre-kindergarten children. An irradiation session is performed while the pediatric patient is in a short-term sleep state with innovative anesthesia drugs and correct adjustment of the dose.

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Diseases in which proton therapy is mainly applied in children are as follows.

- Medulloblastoma

- Brainstem Gliomas

- Rhabdyomyosarcoma

- Retinoblastoma

- Necroblastoma

- Carotid Carcinoma

- glioma

- Optic Nerve Tumors

- Osteosarcoma

- Teratoma

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