January 8 2000  


 

At the United States Healthcare trade Exposition which is being held in Havana, Cuba and led by Rep. Maxine Waters of Los Angeles, California, Nucletron B.V. announced a major humanitarian donation of two microSelectron High Dose Rate Afterloader systems.


One machine for the Instituto Nacional de Oncologia y Radiobiologia (INOR) (Nacional Cancer Institute), located in Havana proper, and the second unit for the Hospital Oncologico in Cuba’s second largest city, Santiago de Cuba. The two systems could not come at a better time. Presently, there is a 90-day list of patients waiting for treatment for inter-uterine cancer at the INOR, alone.


The donation is a complete package that not only includes the microSelectron treatment unit with its PLATO Complete treatment planning system, applicators, source for the first year and training for the Medical Physicist, Technical personnel and Physicians. Total value of this donation, approximately $650,000 USD.


The donation of this equipment will enable the development of new brachytherapy treatment centers in Cuba. Rep. Waters personally came to thank us for "such a valuable humanitarian donation". She was followed by the First Vice Minister of Health of Cuba. Dr. Abelardo Ramirez, As well as "The" Minister of Health, Dr. Carlos Dotres who in name of all the Cuban people expressed their eternal gratitude for this "most humanitarian" gesture on part of Nucletron.


The exhibition attracted more than 8,000 Cuban doctors, nurses, technicians and officials of the Ministry of Health. Also in attendance was The Honorable Vicki Huddleston, Chief of Mission, US Interest Section in Havanca, Cuba, who visited the Nucletron exhibit booth to express her gratitude of this humanitarian act and to learn more about the technology.


Nucletron B.V. with headquarters in Veenendaal, The Netherlands, is a worldwide leader in radiotherapy systems, and specializes in some of the most innovative product used for cancer treatment. The company has 11 offices worldwide, including its corporate headquarters in the Netherlands. Nucletron is a world leader in remote afterloading brachytherapy, supplying the majority of all systems worldwide. Nucletron B.V. is a subsidiary of Delft Instruments, an international group of companies with some 1100 employees and annual sales of almost NLG 400 million.