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Review
. 2020 Jul;14(7):1577-1585.
doi: 10.1002/1878-0261.12731. Epub 2020 Jun 30.

What will radiation oncology look like in 2050? A look at a changing professional landscape in Europe and beyond

Michael Baumann  1   2   3 , Nadja Ebert  1   2 , Ina Kurth  1 , Carol Bacchus  1 , Jens Overgaard  4
Affiliations
Review

What will radiation oncology look like in 2050? A look at a changing professional landscape in Europe and beyond

Michael Baumann et al. Mol Oncol. 2020 Jul.

Abstract

The number of newly diagnosed cancers per year is predicted to almost double in the next two decades worldwide, and it remains unclear if and when this alarming trend will level off or even reverse. As such, cancer is very likely to continue to pose a major threat to human health. Radiation oncology is an indispensable pillar of cancer treatment and a well-developed discipline. Nevertheless, key trends in cancer research and care, including improved primary prevention, early detection, integrated multidisciplinary approaches, personalized strategies at all levels of care, value-based assessments of healthcare systems, and global health perspectives, will all shape the future of radiation oncology. Broader scientific advances, such as rapid progress in digitization, automation, and in our biological understanding of cancer, as well as the wider societal view of healthcare systems will also influence radiation oncology and how it is practiced. To stimulate a proactive discussion on how to adapt and reshape our discipline, this review provides some predictions on what the role and practice of radiation oncology might look like in 30 years' time.

Keywords: anticancer strategies; early detection; health care; multidisciplinary treatment; personalized oncology; radiation oncology.

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Conflict of interest statement

In the past 5 years, Dr. Michael Baumann attended an advisory board meeting of MERCK KGaA (Darmstadt), for which the University of Dresden received a travel grant. He further received funding for his research projects and for educational grants to the University of Dresden from Teutopharma GmbH (2011–2015), IBA (2016), Bayer AG (2016–2018), Merck KGaA (2014‐open), and Medipan GmbH (2014–2018). He is on the supervisory board of HI‐STEM gGmbH (Heidelberg) for the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ, Heidelberg) and is also a member of the supervisory body of the Charité University Hospital, Berlin. As the former chair of OncoRay (Dresden) and as the current CEO and Scientific Chair of the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ, Heidelberg), he has been or is responsible for collaborations with a numerous companies and institutions, worldwide. In this capacity, he discussed potential projects with and has signed/signs contracts for his institute(s) and for the staff for research funding and/or collaborations with industry and academia, worldwide, including but not limited to pharmaceutical corporations such as Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bosch, Roche, and other corporations like Siemens, IBA, Varian, Elekta, Bruker, and others. In this role, he has been and is responsible for commercial technology transfer activities of his institute(s), including the DKFZ‐PSMA617‐related patent portfolio [WO2015055318 (A1), ANTIGEN (PSMA)] and similar IP portfolios. Dr. Baumann confirms that to the best of his knowledge none of the above funding sources was involved in the preparation of this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Strategies to decrease cancer incidence or death and their predicted impact for radiation oncology in 2050.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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