It is a leading death disease worldwide, accounting for an estimated 9.6 million deaths in 2018. More than half of all cancers with 56.8% and cancer deaths of 64.9% in 2012 occurred in lower income countries of the world, and these ratios will increase further by 2025. In the arab world, cancer is growing at an alarming speed. The Gulf countries and the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) show a disturbing rise in the number of cancer patients.

Long-term projections show that, by 2030 there would be a 1.8 fold increase in cancer incidence. According to recent statistical evaluation of the World Health Organization (WHO) regarding the cancer incidence in Yemen with total population of 29 million: number of prevalent cases is 26651; number of deaths is 12103; number of new cases is 16476.

The database of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) shows that 15 countries with 278 therapy centers are available for radiation therapy (RT). 515 radiation devices have been installed in these centers with an equipment age between 5 and 10 years old. Some countries in the middle east have even modern advanced equipments as well as highly qualified specialist staff with long clinical experience for applying RT. However, the availability of RT in Yemen is generally not existing and the cancer patients are either receiving Chemotherapy in only one therapy center or travel abroad for the treatment. In order to provide a high-quality RT like other neighbor countries, a special care must be taken by the Yemeni specialists working in such area to make a capacity building in all sections of the RT. This is an essential cornerstone to increase the availability of RT in Yemen together with Yemeni investors to establish outstanding professional RT centers.

In my presentation, I will highlight the current state of the RT in the middle east by reporting the statistic of availability of RT and showing some good models of well-established RT centers. More importantly I will mention what Yemen needs concretely to be one of the leading countries for fighting the cancer disease and to provide the Yemeni patients a high-quality treatment.