Each year, approximately 3000 cancer patients in Tajikistan require radiotherapy as part of their treatment. Until last week, patients living in the Sughd region, Tajikistan’s northernmost province, would have to travel across 300 kilometres of mountainous roads to reach the country’s only operational radiotherapy clinic, located in the national capital, Dushanbe. On 18 August, this gap separating cancer patients from the care they require was finally closed when a new radiotherapy facility was officially inaugurated in Khujand, the capital of Sughd province.
Rajabboy Ahmadzoda, Governor of the Sughd Region inaugurated the new facility, established with the support of the IAEA. The new radiotherapy department, the first of its kind in Khujand, will increase access to cancer care while simultaneously reducing waiting times and improving equipment usage, elsewhere in the country.
The provision of the new radiotherapy equipment for the Sughd Centre is the latest in a series of advances made by the Government of Tajikistan with the support of the IAEA, through the technical cooperation (TC) programme[1]. Since 2014, a succession of projects have supported the strengthening of cancer services in Dushanbe, and the expansion of radiotherapy treatment to Khujand, by delivering specialized training and equipment.
The Republic Oncological Scientific Centre in Dushanbe has previously been the only provider of radiotherapy services for this nation of nine million, until August 2019. This meant that cancer patients in Tajikistan’s northern Sughd region would have to travel long distances to access the cancer treatment prescribed to them. For many, this journey can be unaffordable. By introducing such services into the northern province, which is home to close to a third of the country’s population, officials aimed to expand access to radiotherapy, which at least half of all cancer patients will require.
In his speech, delivered at the new facility’s inauguration, Governor Ahmadzoda described the challenges borne by cancer patients in the Sughd region in accessing cancer care. He also noted that the demand for services in Dushanbe had placed a heavy load on the country’s only Cobalt-60 machine, which the new regional centre will now help alleviate, thereby improving cancer services for the country’s entire population.
