IAEA seeks feasible solutions for cancer treatment

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on November 30 urged scientists and manufacturing industries around the world to step up efforts to find a possible solution to cancer treatment in the developing country.

According to the IAEA, scientists and intermediate manufacturing industries IAEA have negotiated to find a possible solution to be able to produce radiotherapy machines at low cost.

Currently, the cost to set up a radiotherapy center with adequate machines and supporting equipment is up to 3 million USD. Meanwhile, the goal set by the IAEA since 2009 is the cost of the package including radiotherapy machine, the cost of training medical staff to operate the machine, the maintenance cost as well as the support system to help doctors decide The most effective radiation therapy for each type of cancer does not exceed $ 1 million for poor countries.

Although the cost of radiotherapy has now plummeted, it still cannot meet the target of 1 million USD. In addition, radiotherapists must also consider other variables in developing countries such as temperature, unstable electricity supply as well as the quality of water used for radiotherapy.

In addition, the advisory group on developing access to radiotherapy in developing countries (AGART) is composed of international scientists and manufacturing industries who have just finished their second consultation session, in which houses Radiotherapy from Canada, the Czech Republic, Germany, India and the UK has developed many new ideas in the treatment of cancer in developing countries.

Mr. Jean-Pierre Cayol, Director of the IAEA Action Program on Radiation Therapy (PACT), affirmed that the AGaRT studies were on track.

According to IAEA data, there are currently more than 50% of patients with cancer due to various reasons that need to be treated for radiation therapy. Meanwhile, a radiotherapy machine is currently only able to treat at most 500 patients a year. Therefore, to meet the radiotherapy needs of the growing number of cancer patients in developing countries, these countries need to add at least 5,000 radiotherapy machines, not to mention of them in 20 developing countries. There is currently no radiation therapy.

Increasing the number of radiotherapy machines will enable cancer patients in poor countries not to travel too far in the country or to go abroad for treatment.