ESTRO 2025 - Abstract Book

S135

Invited Speaker

ESTRO 2025

Material/Methods This cross-section underpins the main issues concerning RTT’s lack of education and staff shortage causes and possible consequences in LMICs and certain UMICs. These considerations come from actual experiences in certain public hospitals in Eastern Europe region. Results In some of LMICs the needs for medical staff started to significantly exceed the number of available medical professionals. The lack of workforce was not always obvious in the field of radiation therapy, and there could be several reasons for it being so nowadays. Those countries, who managed to achieve certain advances and improvements of RTTs education and training, are now facing significant issue of brain drain. Many radiotherapy professionals, including RTTs working in the public radiotherapy sector are starting to move towards private centres, industry or other (western) European countries drawn by higher salaries and better working conditions. In some countries currently, more than 25% of RTTs working in certain radiotherapy departments have less than one year of work experience. On the other hand, the number and complexity of new radiotherapy equipment is rapidly increasing in many countries [4]. RTT’s education in practically all LMCIs is either not existing at all, or it is performed through integrated study programs, educating Radiation Technologists in the fields of radiology, radiotherapy, and nuclear medicine. All these programs provide an inadequate share of radiotherapy education in both theory and practice. This reduces the initial interest of graduate students in moving towards radiotherapy practice and lowers their level of confidence to work as RTTs. Moreover, in joint educational programmes, radiology is more attractive track, for it is less stressful, it is widely available, and it has a lot of opportunities for private practice and higher salaries. There is also an issue of lack of career development, and formal recognition of higher levels of education. Conclusion In most of LMCIs, RTTs are working in an environment with extensive workload, inadequate basic education, high demand for continuing professional development, facing understaffing and a high workforce mobility. There is a clear need for strengthening the professional profile and taking on novel approaches in workforce recruitment and retention strategies for RTTs. Further efforts must be made to make the formal education more efficient. Attaining knowledge and skills should be formalised and equally recognized in all the European countries.These targeted interventions could enhance RTTs professional awareness and job satisfaction, while reducing staff turnover and ensuring service quality, continuity and safety. References [1] E.H. Zubizarreta, E. Fidarova, B. Healy, E. Rosenblatt, Need for Radiotherapy in Low and Middle Income Countries – The Silent Crisis Continues, Clinical Oncology, Volume 27, Issue 2,2015, ISSN 0936-6555. [2] J. Izewska, M. Coffey, P. Scalliet, E. Zubizarreta, T.Santos, I. Vouldis, P. Dunscombe, Improving the quality of radiation oncology: 10years’ experience of QUATRO audits in the IAEA Europe Region, Radiotherapy and Oncology, Volume 126, Issue 2, 2018, ISSN 0167-8140. [3] M. Coffey, C. Dickie, E. Fidarova, V. Karadža, P. Scherer, M. Leech, Best practice in radiation oncology: A project to train the trainers: Review of 2008–2023, Technical Innovations & Patient Support in Radiation Oncology, Volume 32, 2024, 100281, ISSN 2405-6324. [4] Abdel-Wahab, M. Abdel-Wahab, C N. Coleman, J. Grau Eriksen, P. Lee, R. Kraus, E. Harsdorf, et al., Addressing challenges in low-income and middle-income countries through novel radiotherapy research opportunities, The Lancet Oncology, Volume 25, Issue 6, e270 - e280.