Director of Cho Ray Hospital Nguyen Tri Thuc proposed to equip 2 proton radiotherapy machines in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, costing about 2,500-3,000 billion VND per machine system.
This is the most advanced external beam radiotherapy technique today, allowing an optimal dose of radiation to be delivered precisely to the tumor, including tumors with complex shapes and located near healthy organs that are sensitive to radiation. This method will overcome the weakness of linear accelerator radiotherapy, which is that most of the radiation dose is concentrated at the point of irradiation into the body and damages healthy tissue, causing many side effects.
In particular, in growing children, conventional radiotherapy can slow down development. When increasing the radiation dose to effectively treat the tumor, it also causes a high risk of secondary cancer later. In this case, proton radiotherapy is the most effective and safest method, superior to many types of cancer such as medulloblastoma, retinoblastoma, osteosarcoma, soft tissue sarcoma...
Research shows that 9,000 cancer patients need this technique. Each proton chamber treats about 300 patients each year, meaning Vietnam needs about 30 proton treatment chambers. However, our country currently does not have any proton radiotherapy machines.
Therefore, at the Socio-Economic Discussion at the National Assembly on the morning of November 1, delegate Nguyen Tri Thuc said that investing in building high-quality cancer centers equipped with advanced radiotherapy systems on par with the region and the world, especially proton radiotherapy, is an urgent issue. This will attract cancer patients to receive treatment domestically, without having to go abroad, saving foreign currency costs.
"This is an inevitable trend we must follow in cancer treatment," the doctor said, suggesting that the National Assembly and the Government pay attention to equipping two proton radiotherapy centers in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. The advantage is that radiotherapy doctors in these two places can access the technique after 6 months of training abroad.
Proton therapy machine at a cancer treatment center in the US. Photo: stantec
Currently, there are more than 120 proton radiotherapy centers operating in the world. Developed countries in the world such as the US, Japan, Germany, France, UK, Russia, China and some countries in Southeast Asia (Singapore, Thailand) have been applying this technique. Many cancer patients in Vietnam who need high-quality treatment have to go abroad at huge annual costs, costing billions of USD.
On the other hand, our country currently has only 84 linear accelerators to serve the treatment of a population of 100 million, meeting only 60-70% of basic needs. Many accelerators have been in operation for 10-15 years and often break down, affecting treatment.
"To achieve the minimum criteria of one radiotherapy machine per million people set by the Government and the Ministry of Health, it is necessary to invest in installing 35-40 new radiotherapy machines in the coming time," said Mr. Thuc, adding that each year Vietnam has more than 182,000 new cancer cases, of which about 60% of patients are prescribed radiotherapy.
Le Phuong
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