Clinical & translational oncology : official publication of the Federation of Spanish Oncology Societies and of the National Cancer Institute of Mexico
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Spain's radiation oncology infrastructure has evolved in terms of both quantity and structure since the last analysis was carried out in 1999. The purpose of this paper is to describe the current facilities, basically consisting of external radiotherapeutic units, and to present a calculation model for estimating the number of irradiation units required to guarantee equitable cover for radiotherapeutic treatment. An electronic questionnaire was designed to be accessed via a link on the Spanish Association of Radiotherapy and Oncology Web page. ⋯ Forty-five of these were cobalt units and 132 were accelerators. The rate of radiotherapy use in Spain based on the best scientific evidence available and on its rate of use with cancer has been estimated at 61%. The number of external irradiation units available in 2004 (177) is clearly lower than the number desirable (266-316).