The pudding.

In the face of contrary PET data making for a fun cocktail party anecdote, this retrospective look at clinical outcomes following definitive photon (n=234) or proton (n=58) radiation for oropharyngeal cancer reports significantly lower rates of acute toxicity among the minority receiving proton radiation. Specifically there were significant decreases in grade 3+ dysphagia (12→7%) and mucositis (70→53%) and in grade 2+ pain (93→72%), xerostomia (29→21%), dysgeusia (57→28%), nausea (8→0%), and weight loss (59→37%). As expected, there were no differences in excellent rates of disease control and survival outcomes among these predominantly p16+ cancers. | Youssef, JAMA Netw Open 2022