The Executive Director General of the Bolivian Nuclear Energy Agency (ABEN), Hortensia Jiménez, reported that the two linear accelerators for the Center for Nuclear Medicine and Radiotherapy (CMNyR) in La Paz have arrived in the country, which plans to start operations in the first semester of this year.
This is the third center that will be added to those installed in El Alto and Santa Cruz, which began operations in March and September 2022, respectively, and with which the care network for cancer patients will be completed.
“The center is located in the Achumani area, the two accelerators have already arrived, they arrive by port, they are in full assembly so that they can start operations and with that we would be concluding the network of centers with six linear accelerators that are calibrated the same so that patients can use any of the centers, be it the one in Santa Cruz, El Alto or the one in La Paz,” said Jiménez, according to an ABI note.
The note adds that the facility requires an investment of $50 million and will have state-of-the-art equipment: a positron emission computed tomography (PET/CT) equipment and another single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT/ CT).
It will have a radiotherapy area, equipped with two linear accelerators, a high-dose rate brachytherapy equipment, and a CT scanner.
In addition, it will be integrated by clinical oncology and outpatient chemotherapy.
The spectrum of patients established to receive care is broad. People insured to the Unified Health System (SUS) will receive care under the benefits established by Supreme Decree 4608.
Meanwhile, the insured in the different health and insurance funds that have an agreement with the Bolivian Nuclear Energy Agency (ABEN) will also receive specialized medical care.
The total investment in the three centers reaches 150 million dollars, which not only covers the construction and acquisition of equipment, but also the training of specialists in both the scientific area, which includes medical physicists, technologists, and engineers. , as in the clinical part that reaches radiotherapists, nuclear medicine doctors and imaging doctors.
The executive highlighted that the three centers represent an “important leap forward in the incorporation of state-of-the-art technology that is on a par with European countries and with professionals who have been trained and trained to carry out solvent management.”
