Particle therapy is a form of external beam radiotherapy using beams of energetic protons, neutrons, or positive ions for cancer treatment. The most common type of particle therapy as of 2012 is proton therapy. Although a photon, used in x-ray or gamma ray therapy, can also be considered a particle, photon therapy is not considered here. Additionally, electron therapy is generally put into its own category. Because of this, particle therapy is sometimes referred to, more correctly, as hadron therapy (that is, therapy with particles that are made of quarks).
Neutron capture therapy might be considered a type of particle therapy, but it is not discussed here, as the damage it does to tumors is mostly from energetic ions produced by the secondary nuclear reaction after the neutrons in the external beam are absorbed into boron-10 (or occasionally some other nuclide), and not due primarily to the neutrons themselves. It is therefore a type of secondary particle therapy.
Muon therapy has occasionally been attempted; it is a rare type of particle therapy that does not belong to the previously mentioned categories.
Read more about Particle Therapy: Method
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