Edmonton has become the first Canadian city to create large quantities of medical isotopes – a substance used to detect dangerous diseases, including cancer.
University of Alberta scientists used a cyclotron machine (a particle accelerator) to produce enough isotopes to conduct up to 1,000 tests per day.
This machine can produce enough medical isotopes to conduct tests for the entire province.
“We were asked to show that we could make it in the quantities that are required to supply a province and we’ve done it,” U of A Oncology professor Sandy McEwan said in a press release. “We are the only people who have done that.”
Isotopes have been used to screen for cancer, heart disease, infections and fractures. The substance currently has to be imported, but shipments are often delayed, and it is expensive.
“We’ve been getting the isotopes reactors in Europe and South Africa,” McEwan said.
A facility in Ottawa that produced technetium-99m – a radioactive tracer that can be detected by medical equipment – was shut down by the federal government in March.
“It’s my belief that over the next 10 years, technetium imaging will begin to disappear,” McEwan said. “The technology is 50 years old.”
The U of A is the first facility in Canada producing medical isotopes for commercial use, but Health Canada has to approve the medical isotopes before they enter the market.
With files from Shanelle Kaul
