Professor Brendan McClean:

In Ireland this year there will be around 25,000 new cancer patients. That is expected to double in the next 20 to 30 years, so it is a significant increase. Of the number of cancer patients, 50% to 60% would benefit from radiotherapy. Radiotherapy is mostly given with external beam radiotherapy using particle accelerators. Professor McNulty just mentioned that we have around 30 to 35 particle accelerators in this country, used for radiotherapy purposes. There are developments in accelerators. There is a type of treatment called proton treatment, which we do not have in this country. One of the reasons we do not is the cost. The price tag is around €100 million for a particular facility. CERN develops proton accelerators. It is currently investigating reducing the footprint and cost of such devices. That would eventually impact in Ireland. If it can come up with a device that is smaller and cheaper, that would benefit cancer patients as well.