Sask. produces own medical isotopes to use at RUH

The centre for cyclotron sciences at the University of Saskatchewan is now supplying radioisotopes for patient PET-CT scans at Royal University Hospital.

This marks Saskatchewan Centre for Cyclotron Sciences becoming fully operational as a radioisotope supplier.

“We will now be looking to supply the isotopes around the country,” said Neil Alexander, executive director of Sylvia Fedoruk Canadian Centre for Nuclear Innovation.

Before June 6, 2016, these key components had to come from Hamilton and could only help nine patients a day.

Having a local supply means the clinic at RUH will have an earlier start to clinic hours, will help more patients and there will be fewer missed appointments because of transportation delays or cancellations.

“We can now reduce our wait times,” said department head of medical imaging at the Saskatoon Health Region and the University of Saskatchewan, Dr. Paul Babyn.

“Our patients deserve the very best service and these changes will show that.”

Those isotopes run the PET-CT scan to get rid of tumours for cancer patients.

Patients who use the scan vary from lung cancer to Lymphoma suffers.

The facility began being built in August 2013 and cost $25 million dollars. It’s owned by the University of Saskatchewan and operated by the Fedoruk Centre.

Premier Brad Wall talked about how Saskatchewan was a leader in nuclear medicine and with this announcement they’re going to work towards becoming a leader again.

“We don’t just want to focus on nuclear medicine,” he said. “We want other elements of nuclear research to happen on this campus because it’s part of our innovation agenda to diversify our economy.”

This video shows the process of creating the radioisotopes to be used in medical imaging.