UP professor wins R3m grant to perfect diagnosis-and-treatment combination that promises to make killer disease manageable
Breast cancer is the leading type of cancer among women in South Africa, and globally. Too often it is discovered too late – but a new approach promises a radical change in survivability for patients.
The solution, called theranostics, stems from the field of nuclear medicine. It holds the potential to turn the tide against breast cancer and, like the fight against HIV/Aids, change it from an outright killer to a manageable disease.
Behind this initiative is world-renowned nuclear medicine specialist Professor Mike Sathekge, head of the Department of Nuclear Medicine at the University of Pretoria and Steve Biko Academic Hospital, and president and CEO of the South African Nuclear Medicine Research Infrastructure (NuMeRI), a globally leading, not-for-profit imaging facility situated at the hospital.
He has been presented the 2025 Harry Oppenheimer Fellowship Award, a R3-million grant from the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust (OMT) to complete his research and develop a way to make it widely available.
