Proton beam therapy for esophageal cancer compared to existing treatments, including X-ray therapy and surgery

Table 1 Toxicities of previous reports which compared X-ray therapy and proton beam therapy (%)

Ref.	Modality	G ≥ 3 pericardial effusion	G ≥ 3 pneumonia	G ≥ 3 pleural effusion	G4 lymphocytopenia
Makishima et al[17]	3DCRT	0	5.3	5.3	-
	PBT	0	0	0	-
Shiraishi et al[19]	IMRT	-	-	-	40
	PBT	-	-	-	18
Choi et al[25]	IMRT	-	-	-	12.5
	PBT	-	-	-	20.0
Xi et al[28]	IMRT	2.4	2.9	1.9	-
	PBT	0.8	1.6	0.8	-
Lin et al[30]	IMRT	2	3	10	-
	PBT	0	0	2	-
Wang et al[32]	IMRT	-	-	-	52.5
	PBT	-	-	-	27.3
	PBT	0	-	0	40.7
Fang et al[33]	IMRT	-	-	-	60.5
	PBT	-	-	-	39.5
Routman et al[37]	XRT	-	-	-	60
	PBT	-	-	-	40
Zhu et al[38]	IMRT	-	-	-	46.2
	PBT	-	-	-	22.0

3DCRT: 3-dimetional conformal radiotherapy; G: Grade; IMRT: Intensity modulated radiotherapy; PBT: Proton beam therapy; XRT: X-ray therapy including both 3-dimetional conformal radiotherapy and intensity modulated radiotherapy.