Patterns of care of radiotherapy in México.

AIM: This survey is performed to learn about the structure of radiotherapy in México.

BACKGROUND: Radiation oncology practice is increasing because of the higher incidence of cancer. There is no published data about radiotherapy in México.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: A questionnaire was sent to the 83 registered centers in the database of the Mexican regulatory agency. One out of the 32 states has no radiotherapy. 27 centers from 14 states provided their answers.

RESULTS: 829 patients are treated annually with any radiotherapy modality in each center. Two centers have one cobalt machine, 7 have a cobalt and a linac and 10 have more than one linac. Five centers use 2D planning systems, 22 use 3D; 9, conventional simulators; 22, CT based simulation, and 1 center has no simulation. Most of the centers verify beams with films, electronic portal image devices and cone beam CTs are also used. Intensity modulated and image guided radiotherapy are performed in 5 states. Breast, prostate, cervix, lung, rectum and head and neck cancer are the six most common locations. There are 45 public and 38 private centers, 2 dedicated to children. Two gamma knife units, 5 Novalis systems, 1 tomotherapy and 2 cyberknife machines are working. All centers have at least one radiation oncologist, one physicist and one radiotherapist.

CONCLUSIONS: Definitive conclusions cannot be drawn from this limited feedback due to a low participation of centers. This survey about radiotherapy in Mexico shows the heterogeneity of equipment as well as medical and technical staff in the whole country.