Havana, Feb 2.- The development and production of radiopharmaceuticals in Cuba and the world, its therapeutic applications in tumors and quality management systems in nuclear medicine will be discussed at an international meeting this week in Cuba.
Latin American, European and Asian professionals will attend from Wednesday to Fifth International Seminar and Fifth National Workshop on use and development of isotope industry for health, at the Hotel Habana Riviera, in this capital.
Jorge Cruz, director of the Center for Isotope (Centis), said experts from Cuba, Germany, Brazil, USA, Hungary and Italy will assess the impact of nuclear medical imaging, current trends in cardiology, radio synthesis new precursors, synthesis of Gallium-68 radiopharmaceuticals for diagnosis of neuroendocrine tumors and other specialties.
Isotope Center, part of the Agency for Nuclear Energy and Advanced Technologies, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment, covers more than 90 percent of the national demand for radiopharmaceuticals, substances used in the diagnosis or treatment of oncology diseases, mainly.
Its productions may possible to apply in the country about 60 percent of clinical and therapeutic protocols commonly used in nuclear medicine in the world, in addition to promoting research in the field of biomedicine.
According to the expert, the Centis annually saves to Cuba about $ 500,000 through import substitution, and provides various scientific-technical high added values, including the repair and maintenance of biochemical and hematological analyzers.
Dr. Cruz noted that the Ministry of Public Health of Cuba works on the revitalization of nuclear medicine services in the country.
In this endeavor, Centis specialists will collaborate on the installation of eight gamma cameras and advanced imaging systems for diagnosis, based on the combined application of modern equipment for tomography.