Mark de Jong, Canadian Light Source director of accelerators and leader of the medical isotope project, holds a cartridge filled with molybdenum disks capable of producing enough isotopes for 1,000 medical scans.
A suite of innovative research tools at the University of Saskatchewan (U of S) is creating new opportunities for nuclear imaging research and helping solve Canada's medical isotope crisis without the use of nuclear reactors.
Scientists at the Canadian Light Source on campus recently announced they have built the world's first linear accelerator dedicated to medical isotope production. They have successfully produced radioisotopes through this safe, reliable and cost-effective method that uses powerful X-rays to produce the isotopes with no long-lived nuclear waste.
The CLS has begun shipping molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) – the parent isotope of Tc-99m, which is by far the most used medical isotope in Canada – to Winnipeg's Health Science Centre for purification.
The next step is to obtain Health Canada licensing and become a regional supplier for health-care facilities across Western Canada, supplying total Saskatchewan and Manitoba isotope needs by late 2016.
"We hope this unique approach to medical isotope production will be expanded across Canada to meet the country's needs," said project leader Mark de Jong, noting the aging Chalk River nuclear facility – the current source for Canada's supply and 40 per cent of the world's – is expected to close Mo-99 production by 2016.
Medical isotopes are used on 20,000 Canadians a week to perform critical heart disease-detection tests and bone and organ scans for cancer diagnosis.
The U of S will also contribute to isotope production and clinical research through a recently constructed $25-million cyclotron and associated laboratory.
Starting in 2015, the state-of-the-art cyclotron will produce radioisotopes for research, and by late 2016 will supply an imaging agent for PET-CT imaging at Royal University Hospital for diagnosis of cancer and other diseases.
"We hope this unique approach to medical isotope production will be expanded across Canada to meet the country's needs."
- Mark de Jong
is the Canadian Light Source project leader
New agents for diagnosing humans and companion animals will be developed with treatment benefits 100 to 1,000 times higher than other radiation therapies, said Dr. Paul Babyn, head of medical imaging for both the U of S and the Saskatoon Health Region.
"We will push research out of the lab and bring it into the clinic to benefit patients," Dr. Babyn said, noting that nuclear medicine enables non-invasive tracking of changes in disease processes in humans and animals.
"Using very small amounts of radioactive drugs as molecular detectives, we can conduct a cell-by-cell search of the body for specific abnormal molecules such as those indicative of cancer or of Alzheimer's," he said. "And given the great strength of Saskatchewan plant science, we will design and improve new PET (positron emission tomography) detectors for plants to look at stress resistance and nutrient uptake to potentially improve crop yields."
The cyclotron will be operated by the new Sylvia Fedoruk Canadian Centre for Nuclear Innovation, which has recently announced $5-million for research chairs, nuclear imaging equipment, and training of graduate students and radiologic technicians.
The campus is also home to a unique-in-North-America biomedical imaging facility at the CLS. U of S researchers recently used the beamline to observe developing teeth in microscopic detail.
"No other centre in Canada is better equipped to exploit the potential of molecular imaging across humans, animals and plants," said Dr. Babyn.
The university's imaging hub builds on Saskatchewan's renowned legacy in medical imaging.
Back in 1951, U of S medical physicist Dr. Harold Johns and his graduate students – one of whom was Sylvia Fedoruk – became the world's first researchers to successfully treat a cancer patient using cobalt-60 radiation therapy. This innovative technology – dubbed the "cobalt bomb" by the media – revolutionized cancer treatment and saved the lives of millions of cancer patients around the world.
"Taken together, these developments place Saskatchewan in the top tier of Canada's nuclear medicine research," said Karen Chad, U of S vice president of research. "These exciting projects set the stage for many more health-care breakthroughs, generate economic growth and help Canada reclaim its leadership in nuclear medicine and isotope production."
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