FRIENDS! The new 2024 year has arrived – what events will it be filled with, what discoveries await us?

We’ll find out very soon! Meanwhile, we invite you to remember the brightest moments from the life of the National Medical Research Radiological Centre in the past 2023 year.

The year began with the long-awaited opening of an innovative research and production complex of GMP class cell technologies.

On January 20, the Minister of Health of the Russian Federation Mikhail Murashko, the Governor of the Kaluga Region Vladislav Shapsha and the General Director of the National Medical Research Radiological Centre of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation Andrey Kaprin cut the ribbon to the future of Russian medicine and oncology. The complex for the production of products based on cell technologies has become unique of its kind in our country; its opening will make it possible to really breakthrough in the treatment of cancer.

This past year our Center had many reasons to be proud. The team of the National Medical Research Radiological Centre was awarded the National Vocation award for the second time in the category “For the creation of a new treatment method.” We are talking about a unique technology – evisceration of the pelvic organs in case of radiation injuries, as well as locally advanced pelvic tumors against their background.

The National Medical Research Radiological Centre also became the first center in Russia accredited by the European Association of Nuclear Medicine under the specialized EARL program, the purpose of which is to standardize PET/CT parameters. This allows for reliable comparison of studies performed on different scanners, which is especially important when assessing the effectiveness of treatment in cancer patients.

The Center actively continued international cooperation. Throughout the year, we interacted with our colleagues from China and held a series of webinars: online lectures and “live surgery” master classes with broadcasts on the treatment of a variety of types of cancer – lung, stomach, prostate. We also continued to implement joint projects with colleagues from Syria, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Mongolia, and Kyrgyzstan. We wrote about all this in detail on our channels.

Russian nuclear medicine also continues its rapid development in 2023. For the first time in the history of the National Medical Research Radiological Centre, a new therapeutic radiopharmaceutical “225Ac-PSMA” based on actinium was used for the treatment of castration-resistant prostate cancer. Then the drug, made at our Center, was immediately administered to the first three patients suffering from prostate cancer, which became a great hope for prolonging their lives and improving their quality. And procedures based on Lutetium-177 have already become firmly established in our practice.

All this became possible thanks to the opening of a nuclear pharmacy at the National Medical Research Radiological Centre. In recent years, the Russian Government and the Russian Ministry of Health have done a lot to speed up the introduction of Russian radiopharmaceuticals (RFRPs) into clinical practice. Today, the pharmacy is already conducting research on seven promising radiopharmaceuticals, which are at different stages – from technology development, drug synthesis to clinical trials of the resulting drug.

2023 became the anniversary year for our All-Russian information and educational project “Oncopatrol”, which celebrated its fifth anniversary. The team from the National Medical Research Radiological Centre visited 8 regions of the country from Kamchatka to North Ossetia. The most ambitious program of the year was the event held jointly with Russian Railways on the occasion of World Cancer Day on February 4. Then the specialists of our Center checked the health of visitors and passengers at three railway stations in Moscow – Kievsky, Paveletsky and Kazansky. During the inspection, over 600 passengers were examined and more than 100 suspected malignant neoplasms were identified.

The anniversary year was also for our hotline 8 800 444-31-02, which turned three years old. The project, which started on the initiative of our CEO Andrey Kaprin, was launched during the first wave of COVID-19. Today, as before, it does not lose its relevance and is in demand among patients. By the way, our hotline is available for you 24/7, even during the winter holidays.

Telemedicine continued to gain momentum. More than 16.5 thousand telemedicine consultations from all over the country were carried out by specialists from the National Medical Research Radiological Centre in 2023, which exceeded the previous results by almost 2,000 calls. This format of consultations using the “Telemedicine system of remote consultations at the federal and regional levels” of the Russian Ministry of Health has been working in our Center since 2016. The first one took place with the Khanty-Mansiysk District Clinical Hospital on May 26, 2016, and today the geography of appeals covers literally all corners of our Motherland and many foreign countries.

In 2023, a new department dedicated to bone marrow transplantation was opened at the National Medical Research Radiological Centre of the Russian Ministry of Health, which made it possible to provide care to patients with malignant neoplasms of the hematopoietic system, malignant solid tumors, as well as a number of non-malignant diseases, such as autoimmune diseases of the nervous system and immunodeficiencies.

In 2023, the largest International Forum of Oncology and Radiotherapy “ FOR LIFE ” was held for the sixth time. Every year, this event proves to us all again and again that oncology is a science without borders. 10 thousand participants, 47 foreign specialists from 17 countries, all federal channels and specialized publications were with us! Thanks for support!

And finally, the year ended with the celebration of the 125th anniversary of the P. Hertsen Moscow Oncology Research Institute – one of the branches of the Center. This special event for all of Russian medicine was marked by the opening of a monument to the outstanding surgeon, founder of the national oncology school, brilliant scientist and teacher Pyotr Aleksandrovich Herzen. The first in Moscow.

Our Center has received many honorary awards! On this day we honored the veterans of the P. Hertsen Moscow Oncology Research Institute, of which today there are more than 30 people. These people literally dedicated their lives to medicine and the Institute, having served within the walls of the P. Hertsen Moscow Oncology Research Institute for 40, 50 and even 60 years old!

Of course, these are not all the events that we will remember in 2023! And throughout the winter holidays we will remember them and share them with you!