• Cancer affects 1 in 2 people and its prevalence is increasing

• In 2012, there were 14.1 million new cancer cases and 8.2 million cancer deaths worldwide [i]

• By 2030, this is projected to reach 24.6 million new cases and 13 million deaths per year [i]

• The scale of the challenge demands urgent investment in more effective, more accessible treatments

• Radiotherapy is needed in 50% of cancer cases and is instrumental in 40% of cancer cures [ii]

• For a standard course of treatment, radiotherapy typically costs 1.5—3x less than surgery and chemotherapy, and 3—10x less than immunotherapy [iii]

• In 2017, NHS England's total spend on radiotherapy was £467m

  • the mean cost per patient was £3,672 [iv]

• In 2020-21, NHS England’s Cancer Drugs Fund was £336m

  • the mean cost per patient was £24,000 – approximately 6.5 times higher than radiotherapy [iv]

• Just 5% of the NHS cancer budget is spent on radiotherapy, despite it contributing to 40% of cancer cures [v]

• The global radiotherapy market is failing to scale

• It is easy to think of radiotherapy as a large market at $6 billion, but the radiology market is around 10 times bigger ($76 billion), and the automobile market is almost 500 times bigger ($2.8 trillion) [vi]

• Because the radiotherapy market is relatively small, it doesn’t benefit from economies of scale, which drives up the cost per user and limits access to treatment

• There are around 146 proton beam therapy centres worldwide today – predominantly located in high-income countries [vii]

• It is estimated that 70% of cancer patients worldwide have limited access to radiotherapy [viii]

A landmark study published in The Lancet estimated that scaling up radiotherapy in low- and middle-income countries could save 26.9 million life-years [i]

The same study calculated a net economic benefit of up to $365 billion over that period – more than the cost of the investment itself

Crucially, the study found that economic return increases as costs fall: the more affordable radiotherapy becomes, the greater the benefit

• LhARA’s research into compact particle beam therapy systems directly addresses the cost and access barriers holding back global radiotherapy provision

• Scaling up radiotherapy provision will require significant investment, but experimental platforms such as LhARA can support the investigation of new technologies and approaches that may improve treatment outcomes, enable more effective and more accessible radiotherapy, create new markets, drive economic growth through new skills and technologies, deliver impact through improvements in health and well-being