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MINSK, 28 January (BelTA) – A positron emission tomography center is expected to open in Belarus in September 2015, Director of the National Research Center for Oncology and Medical Radiology Oleg Sukonko told journalists on 28 January, BelTA has learned.

Similar centers already operate in Russia and Ukraine. The Belarusian facility will have a higher throughput capacity and advanced technologies. Oleg Sukonko noted that, in essence, it will be a factory producing short-lived isotopes. The isotopes will be attached to a glucose molecule and injected into the body. Then the equipment will register the signal emitted by the isotope. Thus, it will be possible to find out whether the treatment of the patient is going well. This technology is absolutely new for Belarus. It will take the treatment of cancerous diseases in Belarus to a totally different level.

Besides, a new molecular genetics laboratory will open in Belarus in 2015. The laboratory will analyze human genome to assess the person’s proneness to a particular type of cancer. The National Research Center for Oncology and Medical Radiology has been conducting such molecular genetic tests for several years. If the test identifies any high-risk cancer genes, the center recommends that the patient should take preventive measures, such as, for example, breast removal surgery. “Today this is not just a theory. We actually practice this,” Oleg Sukonko emphasized. The laboratory will also perform blood tests for tumor markers.

According to the preliminary data of the national cancer registry, as many as 43,210 newly diagnosed cases of malignant cancer were registered in Belarus in 2014. The National Statistics Committee reported that 13,000 Belarusians died of tumors in January-September 2014. While the incidence rate of malignant tumors in Belarus is increasing, the mortality rate from this disease went down by almost 12% in the last ten years.

Medical workers forecast that the burden of cancerous diseases in Belarus will continue growing. Antismoking campaigns are an economically effective method of cancer control: every dollar invested brings some $40.