The insurance coverage is being evaluated and needs to be assessed by a medical examiner. In Switzerland, since 1.1.2007 proton therapy is covered by basic health insurance for the following indications:
- Tumours within in the skull (chordomas, chondrosarcomas, squamous epithelium carcinomas, adenocarcinomas and adenocystic carcinomas, lymphoepitheliomas, mucoepidermoid carcinomas, esthesioneuroblastomas, soft tissue and bone sarcomas, undifferentiated carcinomas, rare tumours such as paragangliomas)
- Tumours of the brain and the meninges (grade 1 and 2 gliomas, meningiomas)
- Tumours outside the skull, in the regions of the spine, trunk and extremities (soft tissue and bone sarcoma)
- Paediadric tumours
It can be expected that as results of clinical studies other indications will be indicated for Proton Therapy (prostate, breast cancer, etc.).
Protons will be utilized whenever the highest possible precision of dose delivery is required. This applies to target volumes located very closely to an organ of risk and / or a surgical intervention is second choice. This is not related to special regions of the body.
Indikationen für Studien bei kurativer Intention der Behandlung:
This figure shows the frequency distribution of various tumour entities in a U.S. statistics.
In the light of future indications for proton therapy the German Society of Radio oncology has developed a catalogue of tumour entities for which controlled, this means in the frame of prospective therapy trials, proton therapy can be the right choice (>DEGRO_Stellungnahme_Protonen<).