Radiotherapy for everyone who needs it by 2040
Half of cancer patients need radiotherapy and most of the world cannot get it. Commit to low-cost machines, automated planning and trained staff so that access is universal by 2040.
The Lancet Oncology Commission estimated enormous unmet radiotherapy need in low- and middle-income countries, with many countries having no machine at all. Barriers are capital cost, maintenance, physics and oncologist workforce, and planning complexity. The proposal is a coordinated programme: purpose-designed low-cost, low-maintenance linear accelerators for harsh environments (the CERN-STFC-ICEC effort), AI-automated contouring and planning with remote quality assurance, task-shifted training curricula, and pooled procurement and financing through IAEA Rays of Hope and development banks, with a public dashboard of machines per million and treatment gap by country.
- Most of the world has almost no cancer care · Seven in ten cancer deaths happen in low- and middle-income countries, where radiotherapy, pathology, surgery and drugs are scarce.
- Not enough oncologists, nurses, pathologists, physicists · The number of people with cancer is rising faster than the workforce trained to treat them.
- Surgery and radiotherapy cure most, get least · Surgery and radiotherapy cure more people than drugs do, but attract a fraction of the research investment.
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not linked directly; found by shared links- IdeaAn open-hardware radiotherapy machine built for unreliable power and dust
Shares Elekta, Varian (Siemens Healthineers), International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC / WHO), Surgery and radiotherapy cure most, get least.
- IdeaPay for radiotherapy machine uptime, not for the machine
Shares Elekta, Varian (Siemens Healthineers), Surgery and radiotherapy cure most, get least, Most of the world has almost no cancer care.
- InstitutionHacettepe University Cancer Institute
Shares Brachytherapy, SBRT / SABR (stereotactic radiotherapy), Most of the world has almost no cancer care, IMRT / IGRT (modern external beam).
- IdeaBlended finance and a low-cost linac to close the global radiotherapy gap
Shares Brachytherapy, International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC / WHO), Surgery and radiotherapy cure most, get least, Most of the world has almost no cancer care.
- IdeaA national repository of radiotherapy dose plans linked to outcomes
Shares Elekta, Varian (Siemens Healthineers), Surgery and radiotherapy cure most, get least, IMRT / IGRT (modern external beam).
- IdeaLow-cost cobalt-60 brachytherapy for cervical cancer in every regional centre
Shares Brachytherapy, Surgery and radiotherapy cure most, get least, Most of the world has almost no cancer care, Cervical cancer.
- IdeaValidate and reimburse AI contouring and planning to expand radiotherapy capacity
Shares Elekta, Varian (Siemens Healthineers), Not enough oncologists, nurses, pathologists, physicists, Surgery and radiotherapy cure most, get least.
- IdeaA Gavi-style pooled purchaser for radiotherapy equipment and service
Shares Elekta, Varian (Siemens Healthineers), Most of the world has almost no cancer care.