Senegal is a country in West Africa with more than 13 million people, enough to justify at least 86 radiation machines. Tragically, in Senegal there is only one machine, and it is old and in need of a critical update (Cobalt source change).
RadiatingHope has committed to update the Cancer Center in Senegal. We have provided them with their first ever High Dose Rate (HDR) brachytherapy machine and tuned up their cobalt radiation machine. This will be their first time they can actually treat their biggest cancer killer, cervical cancer, for a cure!
While many more improvements such are desperately needed, this is a step in the right direction and it has saved hundreds of lives so far, with thousands more in the future.
RadiatingHope has committed to update the Cancer Center in Senegal. We have provided them with their first ever High Dose Rate (HDR) brachytherapy machine and tuned up their cobalt radiation machine. This will be their first time they can actually treat their biggest cancer killer, cervical cancer, for a cure!
While many more improvements such are desperately needed, this is a step in the right direction and it has saved hundreds of lives so far, with thousands more in the future.
Located in Dakar, Senegal, Institut Curie L'Hopital Aristide Le Dantec (Institut Curie) is the only radiation oncology center in Senegal and serves much of the northwest coast of Africa.
Faculty
Equipment
Faculty
- 2 Radiation Oncologists
- 3 Radiation Oncology Medical Physicists
- 3 Radiation Therapists
Equipment
- 1 Co-60 Treatment Machine
- 1 HDR Brachytherapy Afterloader (provided by RadiatingHope in 2012)
Global Radiation Oncology Workforce (GROW)
We are continually looking for more people to join our workforce in Senegal. Missions have included cervical cancer screening and treatments, radiation lectures and hands-on brachytherapy training, commissioning radiation machines and physics planning, etc. Please contact us.
- Project Manager: Adam Shulman (Adam@RadiatingHope.org) and Jon Einck MD
- Representative of International Development: Oumar Ka
- Director of Physics: Derek Brown and Magatte Diagne
We are continually looking for more people to join our workforce in Senegal. Missions have included cervical cancer screening and treatments, radiation lectures and hands-on brachytherapy training, commissioning radiation machines and physics planning, etc. Please contact us.
We have traveled to Senegal multiple times and have supported many medical missions to Senegal in an effort to advance cancer care in West Africa. We have sent more than 20 different radiation oncologists, gynecologists, physicists and radiation therapists to provide training and support.
Elekta helped us ship, install and maintain the radiation machine in Senegal. See this video of their support.
During the expedition RadiatingHope volunteers interviewed many patients, walking into a waiting room that was overflowing with patients, almost every one with the same diagnosis: cervical cancer.
Case 1
The first day in the clinic, we met a 27-year-old female with a several month history of vaginal bleeding and discharge. She was found to have a large cervical mass and staged, FIGO IB2. Her treatment was to receive 45 Gy to the pelvis with a 15 Gy boost to the cervix delivered concurrently with chemotherapy. She would likely be taken to surgery if an operating room became available.
Many patients recur prior to surgery as they have only one oncologic surgeon and one operating room, with a waiting list of several months. She had heard about the possibility of being treated with this “new form” of radiation that might save her life, and was very excited at the prospect of being treated with brachytherapy. She could be one of the first in Senegal to be treated with the standard regimen of external beam radiation therapy with a brachytherapy boost. We interviewed many women who will be candidates for brachytherapy- and who can be converted from palliative care to curative therapy, literally overnight.
Case 2
A 35-year-old patient, also with FIGO IB2 cervical cancer who was recommended for concurrent chemoradiation. However, she could not afford both treatments and elected to receive only chemotherapy. She moved in with her family to begin saving for her radiation. The total cost of radiation in Senegal is $300.00– for all treatments, including the history and physical, physics planning, dosimetry, and treatments.
Her tumor responded moderately to the chemotherapy, but when she could finally afford the radiation treatments they found her disease had greatly advanced, involving the entire pelvic region. She was treated palliatively, 30 Gy in 10 fractions.
Case 1
The first day in the clinic, we met a 27-year-old female with a several month history of vaginal bleeding and discharge. She was found to have a large cervical mass and staged, FIGO IB2. Her treatment was to receive 45 Gy to the pelvis with a 15 Gy boost to the cervix delivered concurrently with chemotherapy. She would likely be taken to surgery if an operating room became available.
Many patients recur prior to surgery as they have only one oncologic surgeon and one operating room, with a waiting list of several months. She had heard about the possibility of being treated with this “new form” of radiation that might save her life, and was very excited at the prospect of being treated with brachytherapy. She could be one of the first in Senegal to be treated with the standard regimen of external beam radiation therapy with a brachytherapy boost. We interviewed many women who will be candidates for brachytherapy- and who can be converted from palliative care to curative therapy, literally overnight.
Case 2
A 35-year-old patient, also with FIGO IB2 cervical cancer who was recommended for concurrent chemoradiation. However, she could not afford both treatments and elected to receive only chemotherapy. She moved in with her family to begin saving for her radiation. The total cost of radiation in Senegal is $300.00– for all treatments, including the history and physical, physics planning, dosimetry, and treatments.
Her tumor responded moderately to the chemotherapy, but when she could finally afford the radiation treatments they found her disease had greatly advanced, involving the entire pelvic region. She was treated palliatively, 30 Gy in 10 fractions.
The lack of such items that we take for granted in the developed world is a daily obstacle for patients in Senegal. Besides functioning equipment, items as small as robes and sheets for the patients or latex gloves for the therapists are in short supply.
- Linear Accelerator
- Additional Cobalt Machines
- CT Scanner F
- Cerrobend, Block Cutters, and Mixing Pot for Treatment Blocks
- Film Processor
- Basic Medical Supplies-Robes, Linen, Gloves
- Ion Chambers
- Electrometer PTW
- TLD’s
- Electrometer to Read TLD’s
- TPS
- Mini Water Tank
- Software
- Hood
- Masks Thermoformable, Support Mask
Pictures coming soon.
I had the opportunity to spend a number of months at this hospital working as a volunteer medical physicist. As I first began working, I had many plans to improve procedure in the department as well as the sophistication of use of the instruments. But as time passed, I realized that the severe lack of functioning equipment placed equally severe restrictions on the amount of work and improvements that I could implement.
Immersed in the difficulties of medicine in a developing country, I was quick to realize my naiveté regarding the situation, as I was initially introduced to it when I was practicing medical physics in the United States. As I searched for solutions to the many problems I faced, and as I tried to overcome the overwhelming obstacles that faced me, I was touched by the words of the medical physicist that worked there.
Adam Shulman
