Country lacks specialists to fight cancer

Bangladesh needs scores of specialist doctors, trained medical physicists, and radiotherapy machines to cope with the rising number of cancer patients.
Experts told this to the opening session of a three-day international conference on "medical physics in radiation oncology and imaging" at Gano Shastha Kendra in Savar yesterday. Some 200 specialists of cancer, radiation oncology, and medical physics from China, UK, Germany, India, Indonesia, Lebanon, Japan, Nepal, Nigeria, and Pakistan are participating in the conference.
The conference is organised by medical physics and biomedical engineering department of Gano University in Savar, in association with Bangladesh Medical Physics Society (BMPS) and Bangladesh Society of Radiation Oncologists (BSRO).
BSRO President Hafizur Rahman Ansari said at least 150 radiotherapy machines, 700 medical physicists, and 300 radio oncologists are necessary against 150-million people.
Now the country has only 10 percent of its requirement, he added. “Medical physicists have a vital role to play in cancer treatment alongside doctors, as there is need for selecting dose of radiation and radiation control,” said Farid Uddin Ahmed, chairman of Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission.
Professor Emeritus ABMF Karim inaugurated the conference while chief patron of the conference, Prof Mesbahuddin Ahmed, also vice chancellor of Gano University, and Prof Golam Abu Zakaria, among others, were present.