THE PHILIPPINE Nuclear Research Institute of the Department of Science and Technology laid the framework for a nuclear medicine facility that will make cancer diagnosis and treatment in the country cheaper.

“Through this center, cancer staging and management will be more affordable and reachable to the common Filipino people,” DOST Secretary Fortunato Dela Peña said.

Nuclear medicine uses medical imaging through small amounts of radioactive materials called radiopharmaceuticals.

The Nuclear Medicine Research and Innovation Center will house a medical cyclotron and Positron Emission Tomography-Computed Tomography imaging centers.

The center will be the first in the country to have both a medical cyclotron and a PET-CT scanner in one place.

Dela Peña said the center’s cyclotron facility will create radiopharmaceuticals that will be used in a cancer center to be established soon by the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital.