If we all make an effort, there are great chances that Montenegro will be the seat of the international institute for the application of hadronic cancer therapy, Minister of Science Sanja Damjanović said yesterday.
"Because only the Ministry of Science cannot do it. We have to offer an attractive location. Because if you want to attract the scientific community, they simply want to live in an environment that is attractive. Montenegro can offer that," said Damjanović, emphasizing that it is no coincidence that Switzerland was chosen as the seat of CERN.
The decision on the location for the headquarters of the institute (SEEIIST), whose core is hadronic cancer therapy, should be made at the end of next year or at the beginning of 2021. Montenegro is competing with Slovenia, North Macedonia and Bulgaria.
This method, by the way, increases the percentage of survival five years after therapy by 90 percent, compared to the conventional method of radiotherapy, where that percentage is from 10 to 20 percent.
At a lecture organized by the Rotary Club, the minister pointed out that the importance of the method is greater if one takes into account the fact that the mortality rate from cancer in the region is up to three times higher than in other countries of the old continent.
She pointed out that this is the only method that can be applied to pregnant women who have cancer.
She explained that with classical therapy, the largest dose is deposited on healthy cells until you reach the cancerous ones, while with hadronic therapy, the entire dose is deposited on the part where the tissue is diseased.
Montenegro, she pointed out, would also achieve great savings on treatment, regardless of where SEEIIST's headquarters will be in the end.
"From the Health Fund, the state pays seven million euros every year for the treatment of our patients outside of Montenegro, of which 3,5 for cancer treatment. If a country had a quota of 100 patients, it would treat those patients in our region for two million," she pointed out.
"Rotary International on a global level is a partner of the World Health Organization (WHO), and as a member of this big family, the Rotary Club of Podgorica strongly supports this project of putting science at the service of health and expresses its willingness to participate in the further development of the project in the education and promotion of this idea." , said Prof. Dr. Silvana Đurašević, president of the Podgorica Rotary Club.
KC gets its own research center?
According to the Minister of Science, a research center will most likely be opened within the Oncology Clinic, in the Clinical Center.
"Next year, we will allocate 150.00 euros from the budget of the Ministry of Science. Those 150.000 euros will be set aside for our young people," Damjanović said at yesterday's lecture.
She added that people who will be hired at the research center will have the opportunity to improve, among other things, at CERN and GSI.
The head of the union of doctors of medicine, Milena Popović Samardžić, previously said that many left the country because they wanted to engage in research work, but they did not have the conditions for that in Montenegro.
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