Cancer is curable
Development of Ukraine Foundation donates 40 million dollars to fight cancer
Doctors are convinced that it is possible to cure early-stage cancers. But they need state-of-the-art medical equipment, which is Ukraine’s number-one problem. Rinat Akhmetov’s charitable foundation Development of Ukraine has just launched a new project whose slogan is “Cancer is curable through timely diagnostics and treatment.” Two positron-emission CAT scanners and a cyber knife for the non- surgical excision of cancerous tumors will be bought with part of the foundation’s grant money totaling 40 million dollars.
“One of the CAT scanners will be given to the National Cancer Institute and the second one, to the Donetsk Oblast Anti-Tumor Center,” said Akhmetov, president of the foundation. “A decision has not yet been made about which city in western Ukraine will receive assistance from our foundation. But we know for sure that diagnostics and treatment will be free of charge for all Ukrainian citizens. Over 900,000 people in Ukraine have been diagnosed with cancer, and each year 100,000 Ukrainians succumb to various forms of this disease. The foundation is investing money in early diagnostics and effective treatment, because in the early stages the disease is 90-100 percent curable.”
Doctors call CAT scanners and CyberKnife cancer treatment the gold standard in treating cancer. Western doctors have been using this medical equipment for a long time, while barely any cancer clinics in Ukraine have anything of the kind. Dr. Hryhorii Bondar, the head of the Donetsk Oblast Anti-Tumor Center, explained that a malignant tumor can be extracted in 40 minutes with the help of CyberKnife treatment, whereas an ordinary operation takes over five hours. Besides cancer, the new equipment can be used for treating diseases of the liver, brain, and pancreas, while positron-emission tomographs are meant for diagnosing cardiovascular diseases.
The new equipment will arrive in Ukraine only a year from now. Negotiations with foreign manufacturers are taking place, and doctors say that a few more months are needed to bring this equipment to Ukraine and set it up.
“We expect to get positive results in one and a half years,” said Dr. Ihor Shchepotin, the head of the National Cancer Institute. “But we should not rush things. Nowadays Ukraine tops the list of European countries according to the number of cancer cases and mortality rate stemming from this disease. The reason for the high incidence of cancer is not the lack of knowledge or specialists but the lack of a material-technical base. Meanwhile, two-thirds of Ukrainian cancer specialists have undergone internships abroad and are ready to work with modern equipment.
“Oncological diseases are among the most complicated of all medical problems. They are caused by poor nutrition, bad habits, and radioactive pollution. Today only 9 percent of people with cancer undergo radical treatment. Most people stricken with cancer see a doctor only when they are in the third or fourth stages of the disease. Therefore, Ukrainians must be taught to seek medical attention at cancer clinics from time to time,” said the head of the National Cancer Institute.
Ukrainian doctors also complain about the lack of medical funding from the state. According to Tetiana Bakhtiieva, the head of the Parliamentary Health Committee, 280 million hryvnias were allocated in 2008 to fight cancer, but only 30 million dollars of this amount were designated for the purchase of new equipment. This sum is not enough to create a strong technical base for treating cancer.
Akhmetov’s charitable project is the second benevolent action undertaken by the Development of Ukraine Foundation (the first one was aimed at combating tuberculosis in Ukraine). The president of the foundation hopes that the next step will be the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, considered one of the main causes of the high death rate among Ukrainians.
