Establishing a facility to provide radiation therapy is expensive. Rural and suburban patients should expect cancer care equal to the best treatment in the world. For radiation therapy this treatment will always be based in a centre with a minimum of $5 million equipment and many cancer care professionals to staff the facility and provide care. There is a trade off of distance to travel for such care versus the need to focus expertise in centres of excellence.
Proton therapy is the extreme end of this equation.
The Australian Bragg Centre (ABC) has commenced construction in Adelaide. The cost of the centre is more than $100 million and the expertise required to deliver the care draws upon expertise developed internationally over many years.
How do we integrate the comprehensive care of a cancer patient , delivering excellence throughout the country yet making low volume high cost treatments accessible.
"Accessible" is more than the PATS for transport costs, it is training all health care providers to recognize options, perhaps to participate actively in planning the care and certainly the follow up.
We have 2 years to develop a coordinated scheme to make the Bragg centre a truly national facility for everyone.
The COSA members are invited to contribute to planning care pathways and all aspects of care delivery, training needs and opportunities, linkages to provide care to our region and research opportunities in medicine and science. There will also be need to define which patients will benefit most from particle therapy and the role of national guidelines , and to advocate for research in areas where the role of particle therapy is yet to be defined.
Guidance in the ABC work in each of these areas will be presented.