Need for Radiotherapy in Low and Middle Income Countries – The Silent Crisis Continues
Open accessAbstract
About 57% of the total number of cancer cases occur in low and middle income countries. Radiotherapy is one of the main components of cancer treatment and requires substantial initial investment in infrastructure and training. Many departments continue to have basic facilities and to use simple techniques, while modern technologies have only been installed in big cities in upper-middle income countries. More than 50% of cancer patients requiring radiotherapy in low and middle income countries lack access to treatment. The situation is dramatic in low income countries, where the proportion is higher than 90%. The overall number of additional teletherapy units needed corresponds to about twice the installed capacity in Europe. The figures for different income level groups clearly show the correlation between gross national income per capita and the availability of services. The range of radiotherapy needs currently covered varies from 0% and 3-4% in low income countries in Latin America and Africa up to 59-79% in upper-middle income countries in Europe and Central Asia. The number of additional radiation oncologists, medical physicist, dosimetrists and radiation therapists (RTTs) required to operate additional radiotherapy departments needed is 43 200 professionals. Training and education programmes are not available in every developing country and in many cases the only option is sending trainees abroad, which is not a cost-effective solution. The implementation of adequate local training should be the following step after establishing the first radiotherapy facility in any country. Joint efforts should be made to establish at least one radiotherapy facility in countries where they do not exist, in order to create radiotherapy communities that could be the base for future expansion.
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Among cancer patients in LMICs who need radiotherapy, 50 to 90% cannot access it.
“Consequently, 50 to 90% of cancer patients requiring radiotherapy in LMICs lack access to this relatively affordable and effective treatment modality (5).”
From Artificial intelligence for global health (2019) · cites this paper as [5]
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Zubizarreta, E. H., Fidarova, E., Healy, B., & Rosenblatt, E.
- Affiliations
- International Atomic Energy Agency (AT)
- Corresponding author
- Zubizarreta, E.H.
- Venue
- Clinical Oncology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2015-02
- Volume
- 27
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 107-114
- ISSN
- 0936-6555 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2069452545
- Cited by
- 344
- References
- 17
- Citations by year
- 2026: 27 · 2025: 33 · 2024: 32 · 2023: 28 · 2022: 43 · 2021: 45 · 2020: 25 · 2019: 23 · 2018: 31 · 2017: 20 · 2016: 20 · 2015: 17
- FWCI
- 14.83
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Clinical Oncology (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging › Advances in Oncology and Radiotherapy
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Global Health and Surgery
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Radiation › Advanced Radiotherapy Techniques
- Keywords
- radiotherapy access, low- and middle-income countries, access to cancer care, radiation oncology workforce, radiation therapy training, gross national income, radiotherapy infrastructure, global cancer burden
- MeSH terms
- Developing Countries, Health Services Needs and Demand, Humans, Neoplasms, Radiotherapy
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