VLADIVOSTOK, September 11. /TASS/. Pre-clinical studies to create a new domestic drug based on the yttrium-90 isotope to treat liver cancer can be completed within the next few months, Andrei Kaprin, Director General of Russia’s National Medical Research Radiology Center and full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told TASS on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum.

"Pre-clinical studies of a potential pharmaceutical drug based on the yttrium-90 isotope could be completed within the next two or three months. We have very good results there," he said.

Yttrium-90 is a synthetic isotope used in radiation therapy. Director General of the Leipunsky Institute of Physics and Power Engineering Andrei Goverdovsky said in May that the drug’s pre-clinical studies had begun.

Kaprin explained that physicians and nuclear specialists were ready to move to clinical trials to create a specific medicine, which will help doctors fight cancer. "To that end, tens of millions of rubles in investment are required. The clinical trials will last for at least two years," the scientist stressed.

The Fourth Eastern Economic Forum is being held in Russia’s Far Eastern city of Vladivostok on September 11-13. TASS is the general information partner and the official photohost agency of the event. The news agency is also the moderator of the forum’s presentation zone.