Today, Kandy is Sri Lanka's second largest city with a bustling marketplace and tourist trade, and a general hospital that provides free medical services to five of the country's nine provinces, or roughly 7 million people. On clinic days, when doctors see outpatients, the hallways are swamped - over 2,000 patients may line up to see the doctors on any given day.

The three basement-level wards devoted to cancer are as cramped as the rest of the hospital. "Across Sri Lanka, we are witnessing a rapid rise in adult cancers of all types," explains Dr. Sarath Wattegama, the hospital's chief radiation oncologist. "People are simply living longer, and the incidence of adult cancers and the demand for radiotherapy services is accelerating."

Pressed by growing demand, Dr. Wattegama and his assistants can only afford a few minutes with each patient for diagnosis, treatment and follow-up. The inpatient ward for cancer has just 70 beds, but at any given time the number of patients is twice as large. Some do not get a bed and must pass the time sitting on a bench, or share a bed with another patient. Child patients must share a bed with their mother.

Overall upgrading of Kandy General's cancer treatment facilities began in 1998, with $260,00 in project assistance from IAEA's Technical Co-operation Programme. The cancer unit received a low-dose brachytherapy system to treat cervical cancers, a fully equipped radiation laboratory, and a workshop to produce immobilization devices. The hospital CT and MRI scanners were linked to the newly acquired Theraplan 1000 Treatment Planning System, operated by a specialist.

- IAEA