In the next two decades, there will be 30 million new cancer cases, and 16 million cancer deaths worldwide, with over 70% of these being in low to middle income countries. 

Currently, sub-Saharan Africa is woefully underserved with radiotherapy services. In many developed nations, there are typically over 14 machines per million people. For most of Africa, this number drops to less than 1 per million. Some countries have no radiation therapy provision whatsoever.

According to the latest data available, there is one functional radiation therapy centre in Cameroon, and this has to serve the entire population of the country - all 29 million people. This is assuming the patient is well enough to travel to Douala, and can afford the fees.

We are working with CBC Health Services to provide a second radiotherapy centre in the northwest of the country, at Mbingo Baptist Hospital. The hospital already has a well established surgical oncology program, and also works with the World Child Cancer organisation. It is ideally placed for the addition of a radiotherapy service, having its own hydro-electric power generation system.

To do this, we need to construct two treatment rooms (known as vaults, or bunkers) to house the radiation therapy equipment (clinical linear accelerators). These vaults have been designed with thick concrete walls to meet international radiation safety standards. Once the rooms are ready we can install and commission the machines that will deliver life saving treatments to patients.

The second stage of the project will require us to construct some additional workspaces and consultation rooms, along with a hostel so that patients who aren't local to the hospital can stay for the duration of their treatment.

Dr Dennis Palmer (who instigated the entire project) was interviewed at the Global Health Catalyst Summit back in 2019 about the project. You can watch the interview here.