NPR

Facing Cancer Is Even Tougher If The Only Radiation Machine Is Broken

That's the situation in Senegal. The government has promised to buy new machines. But one cancer specialist says there isn't enough attention given to the disease.
The only radiotherapy machine in Senegal is no longer working.

If you happen to be a cancer patient needing radiation in Senegal, getting past the shock of the diagnosis and onto treatment is a major hardship at the moment.

The country's only radiotherapy machine — indeed for a long while the only one in French-speaking West Africa — is broken. That's the machine whose radiation is used to treat primarily breast, head and neck tumors and bone cancer.

Aristide Le Dantec

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from NPR

NPR2 min read
Big Sean: Tiny Desk Concert
The respected lyricist and hip-hop hitmaker comes to the Desk for one of the longest setlists in Tiny Desk history.
NPR9 min readWorld
Fractures In The Grand Alliance Between Black And Jewish Americans
The Grand Alliance between Black and Jewish leaders, known largely for shared work on Civil Rights in the 1960s, has a complicated legacy--and an uncertain future between these communities.
NPR2 min read
Milky Way Black Hole Has 'Strong, Twisted' Magnetic Field In Mesmerizing New Image
The polarized light image gives us a "new view of the monster lurking at the heart of the Milky Way galaxy," according to the European Southern Observatory.

Related