Nuclear energy does far more than light our homes and businesses.  It also helps diagnose and treat serious diseases such as cancer.  For the first time, the African nation of Zambia can put nuclear technology to this life-saving use. 

Until now, cancer patients in Zambia had to leave the country to seek treatment, but most did not get that chance because of prohibitive costs.

“The waiting was dreadful,” Helen Moto-Moto told Angela Leuker of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).  Moto-Moto, a Zambia native, was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2005.  “I really needed treatment, but every time I called the Ministry of Health for news, I was told the same thing: We haven’t got the money to send you.”

From 1995 to 2004, Zambia sent only 350 of thousands of cancer patients to nearby Zimbabwe or South Africa for radiotherapy, at a cost of about $10,000 per patient.  Radiotherapy is one of several medical applications of nuclear technology, where doctors apply radiation to cancerous tissue to shrink or eradicate the tumor. 

Now, patients travel only as far as Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, to receive radiotherapy treatment at the brand-new Cancer Diseases Hospital.  The hospital can treat up to 100 patients a day.  The new facility is critical in a country where 54 of every 100,000 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer alone—often at an advanced stage.

The opening of the hospital is “a watershed event, not only in the history of our country, but that of the developing world,” said Zambian Health Minister Brian Chituwo.

Officials hope the new facility also will help raise cancer awareness, leading to its earlier detection.  Experts say cancer and other diseases are becoming more prevalent in the developing world as life expectancy increases and lifestyles change.  Nuclear technology like radiotherapy can be part of the solution; the challenge is bringing it to developing countries.

To construct the $8 million hospital and train its staff, the Zambian government paired up with donors and the IAEA, which hopes to use this “tri-partite funding model” as a prototype for other African nations.