The Marie Curie Legacy Campaign, pioneered by the ESTRO Cancer Foundation and ESTRO, is a global initiative to raise awareness of the benefits of radiotherapy and optimise the provision of radiotherapy in Europe and beyond.
The campaign has just released their report titled “Radiotherapy: seizing the opportunity in cancer care” which recommends a five-point plan to boost uptake of radiotherapy and calls on all stakeholders – governments and policymakers, healthcare professionals, patients and professional societies, along with national and international research funds – to become ‘radiotherapy ambassadors’ to help raise awareness of the benefits of radiotherapy and secure its valuable position in comprehensive, optimal cancer care.
The report’s authors cite shortages of high-quality equipment, variations in training, insufficient integration of radiotherapy into treatment plans, lack of investment in research, lack of general understanding of radiotherapy as a cancer treatment and misconceptions regarding the safety of radiotherapy among the important factors contributing to radiotherapy’s poor image and underuse.