The improved dosimetry with proton therapy enables greater sparing of normal tissues and greater reduction in integral dose. This translates to the potential ability of escalating dose in the tumor while maintaining low toxicity, which may improve the therapeutic ratio of radiation treatment.

An increasing amount of data reported has shown that proton therapy has great potential to increase therapeutic tolerance for patients with GI malignancies. The possibility of decreasing radiation dose to organs at risk may also help facilitate chemotherapy dose escalation or allow new chemotherapy combinations. Proton therapy will play a decisive role in the context of ongoing intensified combined modality treatments for GI cancers.