Thunder Bay cyclotron needs $1M to launch
Paterson Foundation says it will match donations made by the community — up to $500,000
Another million dollars are needed to bring the cyclotron in Thunder Bay online, officials at the Thunder Bay Regional Research Institute said Tuesday.
They're hoping the community can help raise the cash.
Currently, isotopes are bought from out-of-town facilities and flown in, said Mike Campbell, Director of Cyclotron Operations at the Regional Research Institute. He added that every bit of money is always welcome.
"We're looking at trying to make sure that this facility gets started up with as small a debt as possible, so that we can reinvest the earnings that we make from the sale of isotopes back into care as the hospital, and into research," Campbell said.
The cyclotron will shield cancer patients from a looming, Canada-wide isotope shortage, according to Thunder Bay medical experts.
The federal government is closing down the Chalk River reactor in southern Ontario in 2016, sparking fears that there won't be enough of the radioactive material used in cancer diagnosis.
Isotopes made from the cyclotron will be used for sophisticated diagnostic imaging procedures that are minimally invasive. For example, PET/CT imaging uses isotopes to ‘light up’ areas within the body that are cancerous. However, the isotopes have extremely short half-lives and decay rapidly.
According to a news release issued from the Paterson Foundation on Tuesday, Thunder Bay’s cyclotron has enough capacity to allow scientists to develop new imaging agents that will help diagnose cancer and help physicians choose specific therapies to treat patients.
Watch the video about the arrival of the cyclotron in Thunder Bay on Feb. 10.