 A state-of-the-art PET-CT scanner acquired in June by the Thunder Bay Regional Research Institute, an arm’s length corporate entity established by the city’s Regional Cancer Centre, underscores the city’s emergence as a leader in molecular imaging and advanced diagnostics research.
The new Philips Gemini TF PET-CT unit, “the best, the fastest and the most accurate” diagnostic imaging device on the market, will be used for research purposes and clinical trials, said Michael Power, Vice President - Regional Cancer & Diagnostic Services and acting CEO of the research institute.
Thunder Bay’s PET-CT scanner, one of only six in Ontario and the only one in the North, can detect cancer more precisely and assist in treatment planning.
“You can put a million cancer cells on the tip of a ballpoint pen, but the best any (conventional) technology can do in terms of detecting cancer is two millimeters in size or larger,” said Power.
The combination of positron emission tomography and computerized tomography in one unit produces the usual anatomical images of tumors, but also identifies cancer cells with the help of an ingested radioactive pharmaceutical.
“When we take a scan of the body, we get the CT image showing the tissue, the bone, the ligaments and the shadow that looks like a cancer on the lung, but we also get a functional image which lights up cancerous cells elsewhere,” explained Power. “This tells us if it’s an isolated primary tumor or metastatic lung cancer that has spread to the other parts of the body.”
The radioactive pharmaceutical, fluorodeoxyglucose, or FDG, is a glucose analog that is taken up and retained by tissues with high metabolic activity, such as most types of malignant tumors.
A conventional scan that only showed a primary tumor could result in a decision in favour of surgery, only to have the undetected cancerous cells develop into tumors six months later. With a PET-CT scan detecting metastatic cancer up front, chemotherapy would be the treatment of choice.
PET-CT scanning “has not been validated in Ontario as the technology of choice, either for diagnosing cancer or for determining the efficacy of medications, but I can promise you that it will be in very short order,” said Power.
Research in Thunder Bay will focus on advancing current PET technology through the development of new detectors and participation in clinical trials.
For example, pharmaceutical companies interested in testing new metabolic chemotherapy medications can use PET imaging to determine tumour response in a clinical trial.
If there are 20 patients participating in the clinical trial, they can determine how many patients are responding to it, correlate that with information about the patients’ genetic makeup and target the drug to that type of metabolism, explained Power.
“We’re at the front end of the curve,” he said. “For the first 100 years, we have talked about the type of care we offer our patients. Now, we’re starting to talk about the type of research we can offer.”
Capital funding of $4.5 million was provided by FedNor, the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation, Philips Healthcare and Cancer Care Ontario.
The diagnostic unit will be available for clinical trials beginning in September, when a required patient preparation area will be ready for use.
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