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Cancer management in UAE to be revolutionised

The Director General of the Dubai Health Authority inaugurated the first facility in the UAE that will help significantly improve cancer management for patients in the UAE and the region.

The state-of-the-art facility is a factory which will manufacture an injection, which is required for patients who need to undergo PET (Positron Emission Tomography) scan.

The injection has a short shelf life of only 10 hours and therefore importing it into UAE was a cumbersome process. Now, the Dhs80m factory, that will manufacture this injection is set up in Dubai and the project is a joint venture with the Al Mulla Group and MONROL UAE.

Qadhi Saeed Al Murooshid, Director General of the Dubai Health Authority, said:”This factory will revolutionize cancer management in the Emirate of Dubai and the UAE. Previously we needed to import this injection from countries like Holland and the short-shelf life of the product was always a challenge. Now the injection is manufactured in the Emirate of Dubai and will be an hour away from many major hospitals that require this drug for various oncological, cardiovascular and neurological conditions.”

“The DHA fully supports the private sector and the establishment of this project is a boost to the health centre in the Emirate of Dubai. Health is an important issue which affects us all, and therefore, we give high emphasis to developing the health sector in Dubai. Our strategy to work with the private sector is visible through huge events such as the ongoing Arab Health Congress. And like I mentioned, as far as this project is concerned, it is a state-of-the-art factory and will eliminate the need to import this crucial injection,” he added.

The injection that is manufactured at this factory is known as the FDG (Flurodeoxglucose) which is a small radioactive glucose which is required for the PET scan. The PET scan is known to be much better than regular scans because it can detect cancer early, it can also detect the recurrence of cancer and it can identify if the treatment given to the patient is working within the first cycle of chemotherapy itself.

However, to conduct a PET scan, the patient needs to be injected with a dose of FDG, which with the establishment of this factory, will be locally manufactured, thus encouraging both private sector and public sector hospitals to equip themselves with the PET scan.

The main benefit of the PET scan is that it can detect cancer and its recurrence and this facilitates better survival rates of patients suffering from cancer.

Dr Jamila Salem Al Suwaidi, Consultant Medical Physicist in Nuclear Medicine at the Dubai Hospital attended the inauguration ceremony that took place on Wednesday.

• UAE