In October 2015, months before leaving his second presidency, Cristina Fernandez headed in Rio gallegos the act in which he inaugurated the first stage of the Center for Nuclear Medicine and Radiotherapy of Southern Patagonia (CEMNPA), with an investment of $510 million. It was a project that many looked askance for its complexity and also for the disbelief generated over the decades, around the great works. Undoubtedly, this project is one of the most important currently operating in the Patagonian region. The CEMNPA came to improve the quality of life, allowing those who suffer from oncological diseases not to have to move to large urban centers. Since then, this first objective has been fulfilled, although some of the main objectives of the medical center remained pending over the months.
In the first administration of Alicia Kirchner
Already during the third year of the first administration of Alicia Kirchner, uA group of national officials made up of the then Undersecretary of Energy, Julián Gadano; the vice president of the CNEA, Alberto Lamagna; the general manager of INVAP (a body specializing in the development of technological projects), Vicente Campenni, and the president of the Board of Directors of the Central Patagonia Austral Nuclear Medicine and Radiotherapy Foundation, Héctor Tejada, toured the center as part of what was the transfer of the same to the provincial orbit.
It is worth mentioning that, according to data from the National Atomic Energy Commission, In Patagonia, around 1,500 new cases of cancer are diagnosed each year, most of which involve transfer by referral to more complex centers. In our country there were only five centers for the treatment of this type of disease that have a cyclotron, that is, the equipment to produce the medicine that is applied in radiotherapy, being the one located in our city “the most powerful and newest of throughout Latin America”, they announced when mentioning that “in the not too distant future, the Center for Nuclear Medicine will also be able to supply radiopharmaceuticals to other centers”.
The dream began to take shape
At the beginning of the second administration of Alicia Kirchner, in the month of February 2020, a few days after the declaration of the global pandemic and, within the framework of an institutional visit to the province of Santa Cruz by the vice president of the National Energy Commission Atomic (CNEA), Alberto Lamagna, work was done to revitalize projects related to CEMNPA. During the meeting, progress was made on the need to achieve greater integration of the province with the institutions dependent on the CNEA, “in order to achieve greater technical articulation and, specifically, the evaluation of the installation of a cyclotron (a particle accelerator that will allow the generation of radiopharmaceuticals in Río Gallegos without the need to search for them in other parts of the country). “We are thinking of more ambitious projects for the province that include the training of human resources and a more intense and enhanced presence of the CNEA in research and development,” Lamagna reaffirmed during his visit, emphasizing that “this is not just for Rio Gallegos but for the entire region, thinking in a broad spirit and in providing a service for an important area”.
The “not too distant future” has arrived
Finally, yesterday the installation of the cyclotron began at the Center for Nuclear Medicine and Radiotherapy of Southern Patagonia, thus beginning another fundamental stage for the optimal functioning of the highly complex medical center.
In dialogue with South Time, Priscilla Crowned, an engineer who is a member of CENMPA’s management and in charge of installing the equipment, said that “currently, in order to carry out diagnostic studies, what we do is bring radioactive material that is produced in other private companies, particularly in Buenos Aires,” giving greater relevance to the advances of the last few hours. “There was always a planned work with a future project, and although it is not operational now, the equipment is being installed, which is a large part of the project. A year from now, work will be completed on the rest of the installation and the environmental conditions in which it must be located,” he reviewed.
In addition, he explained that “as a region it helps us a lot not to depend on flights, something that during the pandemic affected us a lot, but it also opens up possibilities for us in research, in teaching, and having the team with us we can produce another type of radiopharmaceutical. that could serve us for any other type of pathology”.
It is worth mentioning that this equipment was already projected since 2015 and available in warehouse. Engineers will arrive in the city today, directly from the factory in Belgium, to check the equipment. Then the people who work on the project will have to make the corresponding reports in specialties and before regulatory entities.
On Monday and Tuesday, authorities from the National Atomic Energy Commission and INVAP will visit the city where they will tour CEMNPA, together with Governor Alicia Kirchner.