Stakeholders must work together to amplify their efforts to deliver impactful, sustainable, innovative cancer care that reaches everyone in need, participants of the IAEA Scientific Forum organized on the side-lines of the General Conference concluded today.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), one in six deaths around the world can be attributed to cancer, with 70 per cent of deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries. One-third of all cancers can be prevented and some of the most common forms — including cervical, breast, head and neck, and colorectal cancers — can be cured with the right combination of skills, training, and technology in radiation medicine. However, such technology is not available to everyone, with radiotherapy, for example, often a life-saving technique, accessible only to 10 per cent of people in low-income countries.
“We have a moral responsibility not to let these people die. The new IAEA initiative called Rays of Hope is for everyone, it is raising hope,” said IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi at the two-day Forum during which experts, doctors, patient advocates, private sector representatives and high-level speakers from countries discussed the way forward. “Rays of Hope needs you, all of you,” Mr Grossi said. “We must unify our distorted efforts and translate them into very specific results.”
At the event, which took place on the side-lines of the IAEA’s 66th general Conference, Rays of Hope was highlighted by speakers as the main tool for further cooperation. The initiative was launched in 2022 at the African Union Summit and builds upon the Agency’s six decades of expertise in nuclear science to diagnose and treat different types of tumours.
To leverage the IAEA experience and to establish and expand diagnostic and treatment services, the Agency and key stakeholders — including governments, the private sector, financial institutions, other international organizations such as WHO, development agencies and professional societies — agreed on the need to continue working together as a collation of partners, to forge new partnerships, and to strengthen those that exist. Such partnerships need to be built on a global but also a regional level, and one way would be to leverage centres of excellence, that could provide much of the training and quality assurance to countries nearby, through Rays of Hope, participants heard.
Speakers also agreed on the need to tap into diverse funding sources to extend the reach of Rays of Hope, which has to date received roughly €12 million in funding. During the General Conference, several partners presented new donations in support of the initiative, including Belgium, which announced its largest ever financial contribution; the Principality of Monaco, which signed its first multi-year agreement with the IAEA in support of the flagship cancer initiative, and the Korea Nuclear International Cooperation Fund (KONICOF), which gathered donations from the South Korean public to support cancer control in Ethiopia through Rays of Hope. Algeria also offered its help in training personnel for the region.
The Forum concluded that funding can be used to harness the international community’s help in making a long-term difference to address the gap between a country’s capacities and its growing needs. Such an approach should be tailored to every country and built upon four pillars: supporting capacity-building and training, boosting innovation, enhancing the sustainability of services, and procuring equipment. Setting up and operating a radiotherapy unit able to treat 500 patients per year, participants heard, can cost USD 7.5 million.
