ESTRO 2025 - Abstract Book

S98

Invited Speaker

ESTRO 2025

Abstract:

The urgency for transforming healthcare systems towards sustainability cannot be overstated. Healthcare policies must adapt to address mounting challenges in risk management, ethics, and societal expectations. These challenges are interconnected, stemming from general health and financial risks, inequities in healthcare access, and the weight of societal trust placed on physicians and healthcare co-workers as agents of change. The call for change is threefold , encompassing care delivery, research, and education. Society expects healthcare professionals to practice value-based care, exemplified by the “Choosing Wisely” initiative, and to implement innovative solutions like telemedicine and decentralizing expertise to reduce travel burdens while improving accessibility. On the research front, there is a pressing need for sustainability-oriented investigations, integrating environmental endpoints and methodologies into research protocols to drive eco-conscious healthcare advancements. Education plays a pivotal role: clinicians must educate patients, collaborate with co-workers, and inform policymakers about the ethical and practical imperatives of sustainable practices. Beyond this, equipping future generations with knowledge and values rooted in sustainability is essential for enduring impact. Recent political decisions offer valuable lessons and benchmarks for shaping sustainable healthcare policies. Initiatives by institutions such as (and not limited to) the NHS, WHO, and the EU underscore the growing recognition of sustainability in healthcare. These examples emphasize the importance of leveraging policy as a vehicle for fostering equitable and efficient systems that resonate with societal values and environmental imperatives. By reimagining policy frameworks and practices, we can collaboratively shape a resilient, equitable, and environmentally sustainable future for global healthcare.

4810

Speaker Abstracts Carbon footprint of radiotherapy and oncology: Magnitude and mitigation strategies David Ali Radiotherapy, CRTT, Versailles, France

Abstract:

To limit global warming to 2°C, per capita emissions must decrease linearly to approximately 2 tons annually by 2050. Given that the average European's carbon footprint is around 11 tons per year, a five-fold reduction is necessary within the next 25 years. Dividing the European healthcare system's carbon footprint by the number of practicing physicians suggests that each European physician contributes approximately 100 tons of CO2eq annually, representing the carbon budget of 50 individuals, highlighting the significant potential for sustainability-focused procedural changes. Currently, comprehensive national evaluations of radiotherapy's carbon footprint are lacking. Existing evaluations are limited to one to four units, with varying scopes, making direct comparisons difficult. However, patient transportation, along with radiotherapy machine construction and maintenance, likely constitute the primary drivers of European radiotherapy's carbon footprint. In our institution, emission sources were distributed as follows: patient transportation (43%), construction and maintenance of accelerators and scanners (17%), medical capital goods (6%), building and bunker construction (6%), HVAC construction (6%), staff transportation (5%), and server construction and maintenance (5%). Each remaining evaluated source (medical consumables, electricity, other IT equipment, waste, SF6 leaks, desk consumables, desk materials, oil, gas, drugs, and collective heating) accounted for less than 5%. Notably, LINAC electricity consumption contributed minimally (<1%) to the overall carbon footprint. Identified mitigation strategies and their respective