Ten-year Chernobyl aid programmes of the Otto Hug Strahleninstitut-MHM: treatment and research projects on thyroid cancer in Belarus

摘要

The unexpected serious increase in the incidence of thyroid cancer following the reactor accident in Chernobyl led to considerable research efforts from abroad and the support of Belarus in order to mitigate these health problems. In 1991, the Otto Hug Strahleninstitut-MHM (Otto Hug Radiation Institute), a German non-governmental medical-scientific charity organization, started several long-term aid programmes and treatment and research projects on thyroid cancer and other diseases of this organ. Since 1993, the project "Thyroid Center Gomel" had more than 70000 patients from this region for the diagnosis and treatment of thyroid diseases including cancer. The project of the "Pathological Anatomical Laboratory" is situated in the Oncological Dispensary in Minsk, where all childhood and juvenile and many adult thyroid cancers of Belarus are operated. More than 6500 thyroid tumours were diagnosed, preparing over 30000 pathological slides. In 1997, the project of "Radioiodine Therapy" started in Gomel, givingtreatment to more than 450 patients since that time. Since 1992, a fruitful international scientific cooperation on the pathology and molecular genetics of thyroid cancer resulted in a considerable progress in the understanding of this disease and in the installation of a tumour tissue bank.