In his 20 years in service, Layth Mula-Hussein, a consultant radiation oncologist at Sultan Qaboos Comprehensive Cancer Care and Research Centre (Oman) and originally from Iraq, and has seen more than enough patients with cancer whose care could have been improved with an unbattered health-care system in the war-torn Arab nation. “I was raised in Mosul, and my city boasted the second largest hospital in the country”, Mula-Hussein told The Lancet Oncology. “There are still numerous problems in Iraq, but considering our war history, we are making strides of improvement.”