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Radiotherapy & cancer care in Africa

Updates from Mephida, project partners, research and capacity-building work.

Mephida · 17 Sep 2026

Featured Article: Developing a modern radiotherapy department in a rural hospital in Cameroon: The Mbingo experience

A recently published paper in Technical Innovations & Patient Support in Radiation Oncology documents the years-long effort to establish a radiation oncology programme at Mbingo Baptist Hospital, a rural facility in Cameroon. Co-authored by an international team including MephidA member Ernest Okonkwo, the paper walks through the practical realities of building radiotherapy capacity from the ground up: securing funding, planning bunker construction, sourcing equipment, and training local personnel — all coordinated through sustained collaboration between healthcare providers inside and outside the country. It stands as a detailed record of what it actually takes to bring state-of-the-art cancer care to an underserved region. [

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Mephida · 10 Sep 2026

Featured article from Mephida Symposium 2020 : Mobilising stakeholders to improve access to state-of-the-art radiotherapy in low- and middle-income countries

On 24 October 2020, MephidA e.V., together with Camfomedics e.V. and the Harvard-based Global Health Catalyst, hosted a virtual symposium from Oldenburg, Germany, titled "Reducing the Cancer Burden: Technical and Structural Challenges in Low-Income Countries." The meeting brought together radiotherapy equipment vendors, dosimetry providers, and oncology and medical physics experts to confront the persistent shortfall of radiotherapy services across African LMICs — and to chart practical paths forward, from telemedicine-supported expert review to solar-powered treatment infrastructure. The findings were later published in ecancermedicalscience (2021).

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