Discover the alarming number of cancer cases in Brazil and learn how to prevent it!

The National Cancer Institute recently published a new survey of estimates of new cases of cancer in Brazil. The study showed that 704,000 new cases will be discovered among Brazilians for each three-year period 2023-2025. Of this number, 70% of the incidence will be concentrated in the South and Southeast regions of the country.

Cancer, like other diseases, can be cured in 90% of cases if treated in advance, which is why it is so important to keep up to date with exams. “An early diagnosis significantly impacts the patient’s chances of having a better survival. In addition, serial studies of patients for analysis of specific treatment can minimize the adverse effects of drugs that, eventually, are not working as expected”, says the specialist in Nuclear Medicine at Clínica Villela Pedras, Marcelo Mamede.

Unfortunately, according to a survey carried out in 2021 by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), 70.6% of Brazilians do not regularly perform preventive exams.

In recent years, Nuclear Medicine has been participating more actively in the diagnosis and monitoring of cancer patients. The molecular imaging study PET/CT, for example, with different radiopharmaceuticals is positively impacting the diagnoses and evolution of patients with some type of neoplasia.

According to the specialist, PET/CT exams are indicated by the attending physicians depending on the type of neoplasm, information related to the stage of the patient’s disease, among other situations.

Normally, PET/CT scans are relatively quick (20 minutes on average), however there is pre-exam preparation, such as food preparation (specific for each radiopharmaceutical). They may be performed several times during the treatment of the neoplasm. The Doctor. Mamede points out that the regularity of the exams is at the sole discretion of the attending physician. Thus, there is no way to specify a time between exams, as each patient is a different patient.