There is new hope for patients diagnosed with prostate and breast cancer, thanks to nuclear medicine.
Hailed as a game-changer in the fight against cancer, nuclear medicine came under the spotlight at the three-day conference hosted by the NTP - a subsidiary of the South African Society of Nuclear Medicine - at the CSIR in Pretoria.
The organisation has a footprint in more than 60 countries across six continents in the radiation technology business.
READ: Top Billing presenter Jabe Hubner shares fitness and health tips
At least 370 delegates from the scientific fraternity deliberated on the paradigm shift to treating prostate cancer and breast cancer, placing nuclear medicine as a way to mainstream treatment.
Professor Mike Sathekge, head of the Department of Nuclear Medicine at the University of Pretoria, said the availability of nuclear medicine meant that a person diagnosed with prostate cancer had an alternative.
It means a patient has a chance to have his life extended and live a high quality of life, he said.
But nuclear medicine didnt replace the chemotherapy and radiation methods commonly used for cancer treatment. Sathekge said nuclear medicine was a form of medical imaging using small amounts of radioactive material to diagnose and determine the severity of a variety of diseases, including many types of cancers.
Patients were injected with the radioisotope which was absorbed in the target organ. The radioisotope would then emit radiation that could be detected by special computerised cameras outside the patient’s body, generating 3D images of the organ.
READ: First heart operation in the North West province successful
There was a growing demand for medical radioisotopes, particularly Mo-99 and its daughter product technetium-99m in both mature and emerging markets. Having therapy available at regional health institutions would make it accessible to the poor, Sethekge said.
This was ideal because it would cut the long travelling distances for patients from rural areas. Services were available at private health institutions because they were not part of the budgeted services of the government, he said. So far there had been more than 350 people scanned and 50 patients treated.
We take our national and continental responsibility towards the security of supply of medical radioisotopes seriously, said Tina Eboka, NTP radioisotopes group managing director. We aim to participate in global therapeutic radiopharmaceutical markets with this production facility within the next financial year.