Overview of radiation oncology in the Czech Republic

Abstract

Background

Modern radiotherapy (RT) plays a very important role in both curative and palliative treatment of tumours. There are large variations among the EU countries and even regional variations within countries in the provision of RT.

Aim

In this report we present an overview of the current infrastructure, organisation, education and quality programme of radiotherapy in the Czech Republic.

Material and Methods

Data from the National Cancer Registry, Institute of Health Information and Statistics of the Czech Republic and from questionnaires and clinical audits of radiotherapy departments were used for evaluation of radiotherapy equipment, numbers of patients treated by radiotherapy and workload of radiotherapy facilities.

Results

Radiotherapy of malignant diseases is provided in 28 facilities in the Czech Republic. There are 35 linear accelerators and 16 cobalt units for the population of 10.3 million inhabitants, which represents one megavoltage unit for 200 000 inhabitants. Fourteen departments are equipped for brachytherapy with high dose rate afterloading machines. Forty-three percent of newly reported cancer patients undergo radiotherapy as part of oncological treatment.

Conclusion

The main problem of radiation oncology in the Czech Republic is insufficient centralisation and the persistence of small, under-equipped departments.