Overview of Radiopharmaceutical Therapy in Ghana

Introduction: Radiopharmaceutical therapy in Ghana has been slowly but progressively increasing in Ghana over the past decade. Nuclear Medicine services have been available in Ghana, a sub-Saharan West African country with a population of approximately 33 million but only one functional nuclear medicine unit. Knowledge of nuclear medicine is generally low even among the medical staff. This aim of this study is to review the radiopharmaceutical therapy that was performed from January 2010 to December 2022. This 13-year period covers completed years where there was a dedicated medical officer with some training in nuclear medicine assigned to the nuclear medicine unit. The aim of this study is to provide an overview of radiopharmaceutical therapy in Ghana.

Methods: The medical records of patient who had radiopharmaceutical therapy performed on them were retrieved and demographic data extracted. The sex, age, and different medical conditions and the ages were expressed as percentages. The numbers of patient were represented graphically to show the trend over the years.

Results: A total of 351 radiopharmaceutical treatments performed in 322 patients were done over the period. Two hundred and forty-two (68.9%) therapies were done for hyperthyroidism, 108 (30.7%) were done for patients with well-differentiated thyroid cancer, and one patient had palliation for bone cancer with [¹⁵³Sm] samarium. Seven-six (21.6%) of the all the radiopharmaceutical therapies were performed in males. The mean age of the patients at time of radiopharmaceutical therapy was 49.21 ± 13.47 years.

Discussion: The demand for radiopharmaceutical therapy is much higher than the numbers performed. The major limitation is financial and geographical inaccessibility. Again, most clinicians are not familiar with nuclear medicine therapy, and it is usually requested when all other options have failed or in some cases been inappropriately managed. There was a steady increase in the number of radiopharmaceutical therapies every year except in 2015 where the nuclear physician assigned to the unit was absent and 2020 when the national lockdown reduced the nuclear medicine consultations, and the closure of the border prevented the importation of radioisotopes. This increase is likely related to the inclusion of nuclear medicine in the medical school curriculum and the outreach to the various referring physician in the form of seminars, update courses or on individual basis.

Conclusion: Radiopharmaceutical services in Ghana is still in the infant stages and limited to radioiodine therapy. It is being utilized more frequently likely because of increased awareness among the referring physicians.

Publication History

Article published online:
25 May 2023