Volume 5, 2021Radiation Oncology |
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CANCER IN THE COUNTRIES OF THE SEE (BALKANS) REGION AND THE FUTURE PARTICLE THERAPY CENTER – SEEIIST Mimoza Ristova, Manjit Dosanjh, Herwig Schopper Pages: 1-8 DOI: 10.21175/RadProc.2021.01 Abstract | References | Cite This | Full Text (PDF)
Purpose.
A recent initiative was launched for establishing the South-East European
International Institute for Sustainable Technologies (SEEIIST), a pan
European research infrastructure (RI) which will provide a cutting-edge
technology for (a) radiotherapy treatment with accelerated protons and ions
and (b) multidisciplinary fundamental research involving accelerated ion
beams. To justify the initiative for building the SEEIIST facility for
cancer treatment, a study was conducted to estimate the time progress of
the cancer incidence and mortality due to cancer in the countries of the
SEE region.
Methods and materials.
The demography and the economic development of the SEE region were studied
in relation to their emigration rate (brain drain). Time development of the
incidence and mortality were studied for the SEE countries from the data
available at Globocan of the IARC@WHO. Cancer epidemiology data were
collected and studied by using the countries’ cancer datasheets from the
World Health Organization (WHO). The top ten cancers were presented for the
SEE countries and for the region as a whole.
Results.
From the available data it is evident that the incidence and the mortality,
both grow with time in the SEE region, unlike in the developed European
countries chosen for reference, where the mortality declines with time. The
occurrence of breaking points in curves mortality vs. time is evident for
all the analyzed SEE countries. Many of these points coincide with changes
in the societal aspects (security, politics and/or economy).
Conclusion.
The emerging research infrastructure SEEIIST will mitigate the brain drain
from SEE, and contribute in overcoming the historical friction in the
turbulent Balkan region, offering research opportunities in many fields
related to accelerated ions, foster, research, innovation and knowledge
transfer, facilitate radiational therapy with particles to the cancer
patients of the SEE region, reducing the growing cancer mortality, thereby.
SEEIIST will be developed as a strong commitment of the SEE countries’
governments and common effort in science diplomacy of the international
community. The central research facility will be based in one of the ten
SEE countries. In parallel with developing the principal RI, several
SEEIIST HUBs and NETWORKs will be developed for different SEE countries in
support to the SEEIIST sustainability. To provide sustainability of the
SEEIIST RI, a GREEN energy HUB (Green power plant for powering SEEIIST)
will be set. Also, an IT HUB (providing big data analysis, machine learning
and artificial intelligence for SEEIIST), Imaging HUB (developing novel
imaging solutions for ion therapy for SEEIIST), etc. Furthermore, several
combined SEE and western European networks will be established, such as the
Training network, Radiobiology Network, Network of Oncologists, Network of
Veterinary scientists, with their central coordination offices located in
different SEE countries, with the objective to start joint research related
primarily to the cancer treatment but also to other research disciplines.
Mimoza Ristova, Manjit Dosanjh, Leandar Litov, Herwig Schopper, "Cancer in the countries of the see (Balkans) region and the future particle therapy center – SEEIIST", RAD Conf. Proc, vol. 5, 2021, pp. 1–8, http://doi.org/10.21175/RadProc.2021.01
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