To the editor:

Cancer patients are being denied access to care, despite their doctors’ recommendation.
Proton therapy is a precise treatment that allows doctors to directly target cancerous tumors. Patients who receive it generally maintain a better quality of life and experience fewer side effects.

Despite the clinical benefits of proton therapy, and that it is FDA-cleared and recommended by experts for several cancers, insurers routinely deny and delay treatment.

These denials ignore the evidence that illustrates how effective it is in killing cancer cells, while saving healthy tissues.

As an advocate for the Alliance for Proton Therapy Access, I am asking insurers to stop practices that delay and deny proton therapy for cancer patients. Patients battling cancer deserve timely, fair and transparent payment decisions from insurers for proton therapy.

Brenneca Wiley

Suffolk