An ailing nation looks for cancer cure

>>Nearly 100,000 Ukrainians die prematurely each year of cancer, a sad reflection on the nation’s deteriorating healthcare system and unhealthy lifestyles.

A small but important step in this direction was made last week by Ukraine’s richest man, Rinat Akhmetov, who announced he will donate $40 million from his estimated $31 billion in wealth to purchase stateoftheart oncology diagnostic equipment.

While standard at hospitals in many moreadvanced nations, the equipment that Akhmetov pledged to donate is unheard of in Ukraine.

The money provided by Akhmetov’s Development of Ukraine charity foundation will go to acquiring two apparatus for positron emissive tomography (PET), a gammaray chamber, a cyberknife and some other equipment to diagnose and treat cancer.