Building radiopharmaceutical sustainability for cancer care in Africa (French Edition)

Cancer is a leading cause of death globally, but it is one that hits lower income countries particularly hard. Without the use of radiopharmaceuticals — medical drugs containing radioisotopes — the abilities of doctors in such countries to detect and treat cancer are limited. This problem is especially acute in Africa. In order to address it, the IAEA is helping African countries to build expertise through educational and training programmes, and to develop their own facilities to locally produce radiopharmaceuticals, which in many cases have a short shelf life and need to be used quickly after production. Local and independent radiopharmaceutical production will lessen African countries' reliance on imported shipments and expertise and help to reduce costs. Trained and qualified radiopharmacists are key to this strategy.