Over a thousand new cases of cancer have been identified in the first six months of this year, marking a 5 percent increase in patients affected by this malignant disease, compared to the same period last year. Breast cancer continues to dominate, with over 200 women and one man diagnosed at various stages of the disease.

This is what the director of the Oncology Clinic at the University Clinical Center of Kosovo, Ilir Kurtishi, says in an interview for KosovaPress, as he points out that after breast cancer, the most common is lung cancer, which has affected around 170 male patients within six months.

Kurtishi emphasizes that the challenge for the Oncology Clinic is the lack of middle staff, where he shows that only in the first half of this year, three nurses have migrated and that two others are at the end of the procedures to go abroad for employment.

Kurtishi emphasizes that the large flow of patients in this clinic increases the need for increasing the number of nurses. He says the relevant institutions have been notified in time about these needs, for which he hopes that the replacements will be made as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, regarding the supply of essential drugs, Kurtishi says that they possess over 90 percent of the drugs. He claims that five types of medicines from the essential list, for which they have been waiting for several months, have already been provided.

On May 20 of this year, the renovation of the Oncology Clinic, the only center in Kosovo for the treatment of cancer patients, was inaugurated, an investment of over half a million euros. /Z. Zeneli/