Blood tests for 60 types of cancer are available in Vitebsk from the beginning of June
"The study in the Vitebsk region begins from the first days of June. Minsk and the Minsk region will be connected during June and until the beginning of July. Then, other regions will follow sequentially," said Sergey Krasny.
According to him, this is a large Belarusian-German project for technology transfer. The production of all reagents has already been organized in Belarus. The PanTum Detect test allows for the suspicion of over 60 types of malignant tumors and replaces about 200 diagnostic tests. Thanks to this test, the disease can be detected at various stages, including stage zero (precancerous conditions). It also offers the possibility of detecting pathologies for which there are currently no effective early screening methods.
The principle of the PanTum Detect analysis is based on the study of macrophages. "A study such as flow cytometry is performed. Immune system cells – macrophages – are isolated, and remnants of tumor cells are detected within them. These are immune system cells that destroy tumors developing in the body. If the analysis is negative, it indicates that there is no tumor in the body and further examination is not required. If the analysis is positive, further examination is necessary to detect the tumor," noted Sergey Krasny.
He emphasized that the sensitivity and specificity of this analysis are close to 100%, meaning the test is very accurate.
Blood collection points for the study will be published on the Ministry of Health website in June. Initially, the list of laboratories will be quite limited, but the network will gradually expand. Blood collection for this test will be carried out by specific certified laboratories. Ultimately, there will be over 120 of them throughout the republic.
As Sergey Krasny explained, staff training is required. The fact is that blood collection must be very gentle so as not to destroy macrophages, which are very sensitive to all sorts of influences.