Equra Health, a South Africa-based company providing professional services, property development and equipment related to cancer care, has agreed to purchase 15 radiation therapy systems from Elekta, a company specializing in radiation therapy products and cancer care workflow management software.
According to Equra COO Erhardt Korf, 56 percent of new cancer cases came from the developing world in 2008. "By 2020, it is projected that up to 70 percent of new cancer cases will come from these countries," Korf said, citing analysis from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Dr. Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization, says that about 70 percent of cancer cases in the developing world are diagnosed at late stages. She blames population aging, rapid unplanned urbanization and the globalization of unhealthy lifestyles.
In some less developed African countries, only 20 percent of patients survive curable cancers such as cervical cancer. In its latest stages, cancer cannot be treated, and patients are limited to palliative care. Chan says that palliative care fails to reach about five million people in the developing world each year.
"Numbers of cases and deaths do not say enough," Chan said in a speech to the IAEA Scientific Forum. "You also need to measure the problem in terms of needless suffering."
Equra operates 27 linear accelerators (linac) in South Africa, and there are about 71 in operation across the country. Korf estimates that the country actually needs about 151 linacs overall.
"Assuming that 60 percent of all new cancer cases will benefit from radiotherapy, and that one linac is needed for every 500 new cases if cancer is diagnosed in more advanced stages – as is typically the situation in Africa – our country actually requires 151 linacs."
South Africa also faces a shortage of oncologists, skilled radiographers, dosimetrists (people who calculate the appropriate dosage of radiation in a treatment) and medical physicists. To address the shortage, Equra and Elekta plan to open a joint training center in Cape Town by Q2 of 2014.
"The joint training center will help address the problem of skilled care, both locally and in the rest of Africa as we move from older machines to the latest Elekta technology," said Korf. "With this training facility, we expect to educate about 600 clinical staff and 200 administrative staff over five to 10 years."
Edited by
Alisen Downey
