National Cancer Centre Singapore and Singapore General Hospital jointly designated as International Atomic Energy Agency’s Rays of Hope Anchor Centre to Advance Radiation Medicine in Southeast Asia

• NCCS and SGH jointly designated as International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rays of Hope Anchor Centre, joining a global network dedicated to building capabilities and expanding access to radiation medicine.

• As Singapore’s first and only Anchor Centre, NCCS and SGH will serve as a regional hub for training, knowledge-sharing and capacity building across the region.

Singapore, 15 September 2026 — The National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS) and Singapore General Hospital (SGH) – members of the SingHealth cluster of public healthcare institutions – have been jointly designated the 21^st Anchor Centre under the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Rays of Hope initiative. The designation was formalised at the 70th IAEA General Conference in Vienna, Austria, on 14 September 2026, with an agreement signed by Professor Ng Wai Hoe, Group Chief Executive Officer of SingHealth, and Mr Rafael Grossi, Director General of IAEA, and witnessed by Ms Grace Fu, Minister for Sustainability and the Environment for Singapore.

Cancer remains a global health challenge. The ability to diagnose, stage and treat cancer effectively, depends on safe and reliable radiation medicine. However, access worldwide remains deeply uneven, with many patients lacking essential diagnostic services or life-saving treatments such as radiotherapy. 

The IAEA is an intergovernmental organisation that serves as the world's central forum for scientific and technical cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear technology, such as for human health. Through its Rays of Hope initiative, the IAEA assists member states to establish or expand their capacities in radiotherapy and multimodality medical imaging. Central to this effort are the Anchor Centres, which serve as regional hubs that enable expertise to travel across borders and empower countries to build sustainable capabilities.

Building on close to 60 years of knowledge sharing and capacity building

Singapore has been a member state of the IAEA since 1967. The joint designation of NCCS and SGH as a Rays of Hope Anchor Centre marks a new chapter in a nearly 60-year IAEA-Singapore partnership — one that shifts from building Singapore's own capabilities to empowering cancer centres across the Asia-Pacific.

Jointly designated as Singapore’s first and only Rays of Hope Anchor Centre, NCCS and SGH will work to expand capabilities and access to radiotherapy, medical imaging and nuclear medicine in the region. Drawing on their deep expertise, both institutions will serve as a regional hub for training, knowledge-sharing, research and quality assurance. This will involve scaling up initiatives to host regional training fellowships, workshops, participate in IAEA-coordinated research, and provide expertise and mentorship to radiotherapy and cancer imaging centres among the IAEA member states.

This builds on a strong foundation established over several decades, during which NCCS and SGH have both been a beneficiary and contributor to IAEA’s efforts in advancing radiation medicine capabilities. From the late 1970s, NCCS has been a member of the IAEA/World Health Organisation Secondary Standards Dosimetry Laboratories (SSDL) Network, playing a key role in providing inter-comparison services to other radiotherapy centres to monitor radiation dose accuracy and implementation of the IAEA Absorbed Dose protocols.

Since the Nuclear Medicine department was established in SGH in 1980, the Hospital has regularly trained healthcare professionals to build capabilities across the region and collaborated with the IAEA on quality management in the field. These contributions were recognised in 2022, when SGH was awarded the Regional Cooperative Agreement (RCA) Human Resources Development Award for its work in training and capacity building across the Asia-Pacific. SGH also houses the first medical cyclotron facility in Singapore and Southeast Asia, along with in-house laboratory facilities which produce the radiopharmaceuticals used in diagnostic imaging and targeted therapies.

Since 1998, both SGH and NCCS have organised close to 30 IAEA workshops and meetings, contributed and participated in close to 80 IAEA projects and hosted more than 150 training fellowships for clinicians, medical physicists, radiation therapists, nuclear medicine technologists, radiochemist and nurses in the region

Clinical Assistant Professor Michael Wang, Chairman and Senior Consultant, Division of Radiation Oncology, NCCS said, “Radiation medicine is a vital part of modern cancer care – it is central to how we diagnose, stage, treat and monitor the disease for effective patient outcomes. NCCS’ long-standing collaboration with IAEA has been instrumental in building our expertise, resources and capabilities over the years. We are honoured to now serve the international community as an Anchor Centre and look forward to working with the IAEA and fellow Anchor Centres to advance radiation medicine capabilities and expand patients’ access to quality cancer care across the Asian region.”

Associate Professor Winnie Lam, Head and Senior Consultant, Department of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, SGH, said, “The joint designation of SGH and NCCS as an IAEA Rays of Hope Anchor Centre is a significant recognition of our decades-long commitment to advancing cancer care, nuclear medicine, and radiation medicine capacity across the region. Building on our longstanding collaboration with the IAEA through training, fellowship development, knowledge sharing, and technical cooperation, we are honoured to support the Rays of Hope mission of expanding equitable access to quality cancer services. This designation will further strengthen our role as a regional hub for education, research, and capability development, while reinforcing our commitment to improving cancer outcomes both locally and internationally.”