An estimated 9.9 million deaths in 2020 was attributed to cancer, making it the second leading cause of death worldwide. Left unchecked, the problem will only increase in scale, with an estimated 29.5 million new cases and 16.2 million deaths occurring worldwide in 2040. This is especially seen in LMICs. By 2040, 67% of annual cancer cases will be in LMIC and there is no adequate resource mobilization to tackle this future challenge.
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Setting up a Radiotherapy Centre
Radiation Oncology
The availability of comprehensive, responsive, high-quality services for cancer would automatically address the many needs of an effective health care system.
Radiotherapy is an affordable, effective and safe treatment for cancer. However, radiotherapy only consumes roughly 5% of the total cancer care budget and about 0 to 5% of the total health care budget. There is a potential to save one million lives per year by 2035 through optimal access to Radiotherapy.
The International Atomic Energy Agency – Applied Radiation Biology and Radiotherapy in coordination with DMRP provide a technical guideline entitled “Setting Up a Radiotherapy Programme: Clinical, Medical Physics, Radiation Protection and Safety Aspects” which aims to provide a basis for establishing a programme in radiotherapy taking into account the clinical, medical physics, radiation protection and safety considerations for designing and implementing radiotherapy programmes in Member States. It includes programme design and implementation flow; staff requirements for a radiation therapy programme; radiotherapy facility design; equipment selection and purchase; quality assurance of the radiotherapy programme; and radiation protection of the patient and safety of sources.