Tatarstan to buy robotic systems to diagnose cancer for 100 million

Robotic system will be delivered to Kazan and Almetyevsk

The Tatarstan Ministry of Health Care intends to buy a robotic histology and immunohistochemistry system with archiving — state-of-the-art medical equipment allowing detecting malignant tumours in the human organism at an early stage. Nearly 100 million rubles in total are allocated for this.

The new equipment will be delivered to the Tatarstan Health Care Ministry’s Professor M. Sigal Republican Cancer Hospital, precisely to its main building and an adjacent building with several cancer units at once (general oncology, soft tissue cancers, ENT cancers as well as anesthesiology and ICU). The robotic system is also expected to be supplied to a branch of the health care establishment in Almetyevsk.

The delivery of the robotic system to the main building of the cancer hospital will be the costliest — 69,1 million rubles. It is the lowest price manufacturers (authorised representatives) and (or) suppliers can offer. The highest is 78,6 million rubles. The equipment must be delivered to the health establishment from the signing of the contract to 1 December 2021.

The supply of the robotic system to the Almetyevsk branch of the cancer hospital was assessed at 17 million rubles, while its purchase for a hospital building in Kazan will be a bit cheaper, 13,9 million.

The systems are bought by Tatarstan’s budget or, more precisely, with the money transferred to the republic from the federal budget for co-financing of costs on the re-equipment of medical organisations that provide health care to patients with cancer.

Three tenders on the delivery of robotic systems envisage that the supplier will put them into operation. Also, he will have to train specialists of health establishments to use the equipment and provide technical maintenance. Applications for auctions can be submitted until 16 August.

The supplied equipment must be absolutely new, produced in 2021.

Modern standard of treating patients with cancer

Earlier, tenders to deliver a robotic diagnostic system with histological and immunohistochemistry methods with archiving weren’t placed by Tatarstan and its institutions on the website of public contracts. Other regions bought them — Rostov, Kostroma, Smolensk, Orenburg and Ulyanovsk Oblast as well as the Russian Defence Ministry’s Academician N. Burdenko Main Military Clinical Hospital.

41 tenders to deliver the system can be found on the website of public contracts. Some tenders say the purchases are made within Health Care national project.

The website of the Russian Ministry of Health Care reads that the system is a complex of modern digital equipment for molecular and genetic diagnostic of tumours. It is completely automatic and allows saving and sharing images taken when examining a person’s tissues.

An immunohistochemistry (IHC) staining system allows detecting the source, type and stage of a malignant tumour and its metastases, the spread of the process in the organism. Doctors can select an individual treatment scheme for a patient with cancer. Nowadays it is a standard to choose tactics for a patient with cancer.

Realnoe Vremya has addressed the Tatarstan Ministry of Health Care asking for details of the purchase of the robotic system in the Republican Clinical Cancer Hospital.

Share of advanced malignant diseases in Tatarstan is growing

The situation with cancers in Tatarstan has worsened amid the pandemic. The cancer incidence suddenly rose in the first half of 2021 — to 25,57% against 21,45% in the first half of 2020. This rise is the first in the last three years — the rate had been only decreasing since 2018.

The incidence in Kazan is above the republican average — the rate increased by 6 percentage points, from 27,79% in the first half of 2020 to 27,79% — from January to June this year. The worst situation is in Rybnaya Sloboda District — the number went up from 16,07% to 36,64%.

“Patients who came to us mainly came with some symptoms of the disease. While any symptom means that the disease is no longer at an early stage,” Nagumanov noted.

If we have a look at the statistics since 2012, the expert thinks that there is still significant progress in Tatarstan in reducing the rate, moreover, it is very intense — from 30,49% in the first half of 2012 to 25,57% for the analogous period in 2021.