The government will be investing heavily in radiotherapy services through the upgrading of the oncology service and a purpose-built radiotherapy department at Zammit Clapp hospital. Apart from an increase in the number of beds, there will be significantly improved treatment facilities, Health Minister Louis Deguara told the Varian European Users Meeting to discuss cancer therapy.

The new project would include the purchase of three multi-leaf linear accelerators and building new bunkers. “We are also exploring the possibility of introducing PET scanning to the island and this too, once available, will not only offer a service that is becoming essential in diagnostic oncology but will also further upgrade our radiotherapy services.

“IGRT and IMRT will be the next milestone in the development of our radiotherapy services, said Dr Deguara.

He said cancer epidemiology in Malta was not much different to that in the developed world. About one in three people in the Maltese islands will develop cancer at some stage in their lives, and one in four of them will die of it. All patients with confirmed carcinoma are seen by oncology specialists within two to three weeks and radiotherapy or chemotherapy treatment is initiated within a few days of patients being seen.

Malta, with a population of around 400,000, has to provide radiotherapy services which on a per capita basis inevitably cost more than in larger countries, where a radiotherapy department would normally serve a population of between 1.5 and two million people.

One of the biggest problems the country faced due to its size was that of human resources, in such a highly specialised field as radiotherapy. “We not only have a lack of specialists in the field but we are also short on support personnel. On a positive note, it is a pleasure to note that we have a number of young doctors in training who we hope will return to Malta to further expand our service. Somehow, our present small number of highly dedicated radiographers, physicists and radiotherapists have not only kept the service going, regularly introducing new techniques and technology, but we can also proudly say that we operate a no waiting list policy in this area,” said Dr Deguara.