Growing number of pts undergo radiotherapy

The number of patients in the U.S. treated with radiation has increased at an average annual rate of about 7% between 2007 and 2009, according to the “2010 Radiation Therapy Market Summary Report” by IMV. Breast, prostate, and lung cancers continue to be the cancer types treated most frequently with radiation.

An estimated 1.1 million patients were treated in 2009 with radiation at 2,170 radiation therapy locations in the U.S. Compared to 2007, this represents a 15% increase from just over 954,000 patients, the report stated.

Over one-third of the sites surveyed reported that they are planning to purchase external-beam therapy units in the next three years, according to the report. Also, of the treatment planning systems installed, over half of the hardware or server technology was upgraded between 2008 and 2009.