The European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO) on 5 May will unveil a new partnership to advance access to radiotherapy around the world.
The announcement for the Global Impact of Radiation in Oncology (GIRO) initiative will come at the ESTRO 36 conference in Vienna. The ultimate goal is to save one million lives by 2035.
Radiation therapy is indicated for approximately half of all new cancer patients. However, the technology is lacking in many countries. According to ESTRO, 29 (56%) of 52 African nations have no radiotherapy facilities.
The first need is to understand the barriers to adequately providing radiotherapy and defining how healthcare providers and radiation oncologists can develop ways to improve the current situation across the world, said ESTRO President Yolande Lievens of Ghent University in Ghent, Belgium. Lievens also serves as a member of the project steering committee.
The GIRO project will take data from pilot cases in order to provide tools to address the problems of gaps in access to radiotherapy in a practical way. These data have been gathered in Europe by the Health Economics in Radiation Oncology (HERO) program and by the Global Task Force on Radiotherapy for Cancer Control.
