Cervical cancer in low and middle income countries: Addressing barriers to radiotherapy delivery

Abstract

The global cervical cancer burden falls disproportionately upon women in low and middle-income countries. Insufficient infrastructure, lack of access to preventive HPV vaccines, screening, and treatment, as well as limited trained personnel and training opportunities, continue to impede efforts to reduce incidence and mortality in these nations. These hurdles have been substantial challenges to radiation delivery in particular, preventing treatment for a disease in which radiation is a cornerstone of curative therapy. In this review, we discuss the breadth of these barriers, while illustrating the need for adaptive approaches by proposing the use of brachytherapy alone in the absence of available external beam radiotherapy. Such modifications to current guidelines are essential to maximize radiation treatment for cervical cancer in limited resource settings.

Keywords: Brachytherapy; Cervical cancer; Low and middle-income countries.