Radiotherapy remains a safe and reliable treatment option for numerous malignant diseases. Yet, there exists a huge divide in its implementation between states and territories in Australia. Reports suggest that, surprisingly, one in five eligible Australian cancer patients never receive this vital therapy. Healthcare professionals can no longer ignore this tragic disparity. With each passing decade, advances in radiation therapy machines have made the treatment safer and more effective.
Professor Sandra Turner, a senior radiation oncologist at the Sydney West Radiation Oncology Network at Westmead Hospital, emphasizes the importance of radiotherapy in cancer treatment. In her most recent TED talk, she claims that it can help achieve at least 40 percent of cancer elimination. Yet, overall awareness of what radiotherapy can offer in Australia is still stuck in the past, preventing patients from exploring this powerful alternative that could help them.
One of those patients, Melanie Mapleson, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in 2023. When she got her diagnosis, she experienced a “crushing wave of numbness,” drowned with thoughts of fear and unsure about what the state of her health would be. Her story mirrors the internal crisis that most people go through after being diagnosed with cancer. Mapleson recently disclosed her own initial fear about treatment alternatives.
“I did experience the fear, but I understand now that I was sort of misled online to believe certain things that aren’t in fact true about the treatment.” – Melanie Mapleson
Mapleson’s journey through radiotherapy was surprisingly pain-free. She added that misconceptions about the treatment promote unnecessary fear, such as the myth that patients will be radioactive after receiving treatment.
Turner says one of the biggest misconceptions people have is that getting treatment will turn them into radioactive monsters. They are concerned that it poses a danger to their families, children, or pregnant women. She promises us that the radiation is very targeted. It spares the surrounding healthy tissue that doesn’t need treatment, which can create a very small safety margin.
Kuldeep Duhan, a Delhi-based care seeker who underwent treatment for prostate cancer two years ago, had a positive experience with radiotherapy. Ultimately he said the choice to receive treatment was simple with surgery as a more complex and time-consuming option.
“It was an easy decision for me to do it because if I went for the surgery, I would’ve had to take a month off work.” – Kuldeep Duhan
Mapleson and Duhan’s experiences exemplify the life-changing impact radiotherapy can have. Their stories reinforce how urgent it is to make this treatment more available and accepted. Radiotherapy provides much more than just cancer benefits, Professor Jarad Martin tells us. In certain cases, he argues, the best strategy might involve a combination of that drug, plus chemotherapy and surgery.
In real life, you usually have to rely on a mix of those three modalities. Occasionally, you must use them in a particular order and even implement several in concert to increase your likelihood of keeping the disease in check. Martin states.
Even with all of these new advancements and insights, many patients still do not have access to radiotherapy because there is not enough funding and resources available. Approximately 200 million people worldwide live in countries without any radiotherapy facilities, underlining a global healthcare crisis that demands attention.
The medical community is uniting to advocate for improved access to this essential therapy. Campaigns such as the World Radiotherapy Awareness Day are crucial in helping to raise awareness. Turner emphasizes the collaborative spirit of the radiation oncology community on this day. It brings together patients, survivors and their families to spotlight the important contribution that radiotherapy makes.
“World Radiotherapy Awareness Day is a way to bring the whole radiation oncology community together, and also people that have been touched by cancer and had radiation therapy, patients and survivors, and their families, and bring everyone together to raise their voice around the same issues that are worldwide.” – Sandra Turner
As the experiences of patients such as Mapleson and Duhan show, there is a clear need for better understanding and knowledge of radiotherapy. Mapleson calls on decision-makers and governments to increase radiotherapy service investments. This investment is critical to ensure that every patient has access to this life-saving treatment.
“It’s important that decision makers, policy makers, and governments understand the importance of radiation therapy and to appropriately invest in radiotherapy services that are needed to make sure that all patients get good access to radiotherapy.” – Melanie Mapleson
As we all know, the cancer treatment journey is complicated and emotional. Each day, countless patients experience fears fueled by myths or misinterpretations of old evidence. Mapleson continues to look back on that battle, and she admits that her mind liked to skip ahead to the worst case situation when she herself was being diagnosed.
“Those days prior to the diagnosis when I’d felt the symptoms but hadn’t got any answers, they were some of the worst days of my life.” – Melanie Mapleson
In spite of these worries, both patients eventually learned that radiotherapy was indeed a realistic option for them. With new technologies and training in the field of radiotherapy, we can begin to change the harmful narratives that have long surrounded cancer care.
