A pilot project coordinated jointly by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Atomic Energy Agency to assist developing nations in setting up cancer programs specific to their needs is hoping to expand delivery of therapy within some of the world's poorest countries.

The number of people with cancer in the developing world is expected to double from 5 million in 2000 to 10 million by the year 2020, a reality that no nation can afford to ignore.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is headquartered in Vienna and was launched in 1957 as the 'Atoms for Peace' organization within the UN, offers nuclear technology transfer as its core competency. The agency has been working to deliver radiation equipment to those UN member states unable to afford them.

Realizing that nuclear medicine is a key component in the management of cancer from diagnosis, including treatment and palliative care, the IAEA embarked on an initiative four years ago to work more closely together with the WHO to help them bring their technological competency into a public health context.

Pilot projects are currently underway across several continents—in countries such as Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Albania, Nicaragua, Vietnam and Yemen—to help the local ministries establish cancer treatment plans. They are expected to be completed by the end of the year, with the ultimate goal of expansion to other countries.

The IAEA has helped provide radiation equipment known as external beam teletherapy system to the Ocean Road Cancer Institute in Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania and a similar system to the Centro Nacional de Radioterapia in Managua, Nicaragua. External beam teletherapy is used to treat cancers such as those affecting the cervix and esophagus.

“To just rely on technology [in cancer control] makes no sense,” says Andreas Ullrich, who heads the WHO's cancer control program. That is why both agencies with mandates from the UN to prevent cancer globally have joined forces to combine the expertise inherent to their respective institutions.

Whereas the WHO specifies the requirements in terms of primary, secondary and tertiary cancer prevention, the IAEA has agreed to offer support by delivering radiation equipment—“but only within the framework of a working [national cancer] plan,” says Ullrich.

“One important part of our mission is fundraising and resource mobilization,” says Massoud Samiei, director of the IAEA's Program of Action for Cancer Therapy.

He expects the AEA to collaborate more with the World Bank and other nontraditional donors to help developing countries receive funding in support of newly established cancer plans.