Senator Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research yesterday officially opened a new state-of-the-art facility built by Siemens in collaboration with PETNET Solutions Australia and ANSTO[1].
Comprising two Siemens Eclipse HP cyclotrons, the facility will provide hospitals with critical supplies of the life-saving radiopharmaceutical, fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG).
FDG is administered to patients undergoing PET body image scanning for the diagnosis and treatment of a wide-range of life-threatening diseases, including lung, breast and prostate cancers, as well as lymphoma, heart disease and Alzheimer’s.
A radioisotope, the FDG biomarker allows doctors to pinpoint the site of disease within the body, ascertain if it has spread and determine the best course of treatment.
Siemens Vice President of Healthcare, Richard Guest, said the new Siemens cyclotrons will ensure more Australians have access to PET, which will in turn result in higher rates of recovery and the more precise application of treatment.
“We are proud that our world-class innovation and technology is being used to improve the overall accessibility and efficacy of medical diagnosis and treatment for Australians,” he said.
“In addition to these considerable diagnostic and treatment benefits, the cyclotrons will be used in clinical collaborations for the advancement of biomarker research and the production of other imaging biomarkers which may lead to new medical breakthroughs.”
Currently, although a number of Australian hospitals have PET facilities, there is a critical lack of FDG, which with a half-life of only 110 minutes (losing half its activity every 110 minutes) cannot be imported or transported long distances. There is also a preference by hospitals with in-house cyclotrons to use externally-produced FDG to allow for the continuation of clinical research.
“The new PETNET Solutions facility will help ensure greater availability of FDG for hospitals which potentially could reduce radiopharmaceutical costs and enable hospitals to use their capital investment for more PET scanners rather than cyclotrons, which carry a heavy price tag,” explained Dr Ron Cameron, PETNET Solutions Australia Chairman.
Siemens is one of the world's largest suppliers to the healthcare industry and a trendsetter in medical imaging, laboratory diagnostics, and healthcare information technology. Siemens is the only company to offer customers products and solutions for the entire range of patient care from a single source – from prevention and early detection to diagnosis, and on to treatment and aftercare. By optimising clinical workflows for the most common diseases, Siemens also makes healthcare faster, better and more cost-effective.
1 Siemens partnered with the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) to build the molecular imaging biomarker production facility in Sydney’s southern region. The project included the production, installation and management of the Siemens twin Eclipse HP cyclotrons.