Vietnam is about to have a cancer radiotherapy system worth thousands of billions of dong

Prof. Dr. Le Van Quang, Director of K Hospital, announced the above information at the workshop "Multimodal treatment of cancer and hospital management in the digital age - ASCO 2024 update"November 1

Radiotherapy is a method of using ionizing radiation in cancer treatment. After more than 100 years, radiotherapy has become an important method in cancer treatment. Currently, about 50-60% of multimodal treatment regimens for cancer have a role of radiotherapy.

"Facility 4 is a proton radiotherapy center and a radioactive isotope production area serving on-site," Associate Professor Quang said, adding that the investment in building a high-quality cancer center with an advanced radiotherapy system aims to improve the quality of treatment. Thus, patients can access high-quality services right in Vietnam without having to go abroad for treatment.

K Hospital currently has three medical facilities including Quan Su, Tam Hiep and Tan Trieu with more than 2,000 medical staff. This is the final hospital in the North specializing in treating tumors.

Facility 4 will be built in Huu Hoa commune, Thanh Tri district, with an area of ​​about 8.6 hectares, and is in the process of handing over the site. This will be the first proton center in the North to treat neurological cancers, especially in children, and lung and prostate cancers...

Previously, the Ministry of Health proposed to build two proton radiotherapy systems worth about 4,200 billion VND, located at K Hospital and Cho Ray Hospital. This is the most advanced external radiation therapy technique today, overcoming the weaknesses of linear accelerator radiotherapy (common in our country), especially ensuring effectiveness and safety for children.

Currently, Vietnam has 84 linear accelerator radiotherapy machines, which only meet 60-70% of basic needs. To achieve the minimum criterion of one radiotherapy machine per million people as set by the Government and the Ministry of Health, it is necessary to invest in 35-40 new radiotherapy machines in the coming time because each year Vietnam records more than 182,000 new cancer cases, of which 60% of patients are indicated for radiotherapy.