Abstract
PurposeA recent initiative was launched for establishing the South-East European International Institute for Sustainable Technologies (SEEIIST), which will provide a cutting-edge Hadron radiation therapy treatment and research institute for treating cancer patients with Hadron therapy (HT). To justify the initiative for building the SEEIIST facility, a study was conducted to estimate the number of patients with cancer from the SEE region that would be eligible for HT. Methods and MaterialsTwo different methods for projecting the future annual cancer incidence have been applied: (1) using the International Agency on Research on Cancer@World Health Organization's (WHO) Globocan model which uses country's demographic factors, and (2) averaging the crude incidence data of 3 SEE countries with available national cancer registries, using a linear regression model of combined incidence per 100,000, and applying it to the entire SEE region. Cancer epidemiology data were collected and studied by using the countries’ cancer datasheets from WHO. The top 10 cancers were presented for the SEE region. Studies of other countries were used to develop a primordial model for estimating the number of SEE patients who could be treated most successfully with HT upon SEEIIST commissioning in 2030. ResultsA model was developed to estimate the number of eligible patients for HT from SEE. It is estimated that 2900 to 3200 patients per year would be eligible for HT in the new SEEIIST facility in 2030. ConclusionsAfter commissioning, SEEIIST will initially treat approximately 400 patients per year, progressing toward 1000. Creation of SEEIIST dedicated patient selection criteria will be both necessary and highly challenging.
Highlights
Cancer is the second leading cause of death globally
We present the results of our analysis of the available data on cancer patients in the South-East European (SEE) region, including cancer incidence, incidence-to-mortality rates, epidemiology, and projections for the future decades based on (1) the currently available Globocan (GC) tool, which uses the projections of the demographic trends and the economic factors before the COVID-19 pandemic and Brexit, and (2) public available national cancer statistics (NS) for Bulgaria, Croatia and Slovenia that were collected by World Health Organization (WHO) (CI5,4 Cancer Incidence in 5 Continents)
Several Western EU countries have been selected for comparison with SEE
Summary
Cancer is the second leading cause of death globally. The number of new patients with cancer in the world is in constant growth. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the number of new cases in 2018 was 18.1 million: 9.6 million people died, and 43.8 million people are living with cancer.[1] It has to be noted that approximately 70% of cancer deaths come from low- and middle-income countries.[2] The battle with cancer is most challenging in the development of cancer therapy modalities for difficult to treat cases, such as childhood, deepseated, and radioresistant cancers. Types of tumors eligible with highest priority for ion therapy (carbon) include adenoid cystic carcinomas of salivary glands, including head and neck and thorax, sinus adenocarcinomas, chordomas, and chondrosarcomas of skull base and spine, soft tissues sarcomas, and non-small cell lung carcinomas as well as pelvic local relapses of adenocarcinomas.[14,15]
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