eCMAJ NewsDesk:

Vancouver home to Canada's first privately owned PET-scanning clinic
Date: Nov. 23, 2000   Time: 9:27 am

The first private positron emission tomography (PET) scanning clinic in Canada offering full-body scans is open for business in Vancouver.

The PETscan Centre, located on the campus of the University of British Columbia, charges $2500 for each scan and is open 2 days a week. The centre plans to reach its capacity of 2000 patient scans within a year; the province has an estimated potential demand of about 10 000 PET scans. The scans are often used to diagnose cancer, but are also heavily used in brain-related research.

"We could soon saturate the abilities of one scanner," said Dr. Simon Sutcliffe, CEO of the BC Cancer Agency (BCCA). Sutcliffe says that at least 30 patients have been sent out of the province for PET scanning in the last 2 years, mostly to Seattle. Funding for these patients--and most of those who used the PETscan centre--came from a $150 000 donation to the BCCA from the relative of a patient who had to travel to Washington state for a scan last year.

The opening of the private facility follows unsuccessful attempts by the BCCA and the Vancouver Hospital to convince the provincial government to pay for a public centre. A health consultant's report, commissioned by the agency and the hospital to bolster its case, recommended PET scanning as a cost-effective measure for management of cancer treatment.

The PET scanner itself costs about $2 million and a cyclotron unit to manufacture the radioactive compound needed to produce the scan costs about $4 million. Operating costs for the cyclotron would be about $1.5 million annually. The PET centre is currently obtaining its radioactive material from Seattle, because the TRIUMF facility at UBC is unable to produce commercial quantities.

"Do we believe that there are indications now that PET is clearly the superior imaging technique for certain types of cancer? Yes. Do we think that think that PET will replace certain other types of investigations in the management of cancer patients? Almost certainly, yes," said Sutcliffe. "Do we think that those decisions can be cost-effective? The answer would appear to be yes, based upon work that has been done in the U.S."

-- Heather Kent, Vancouver

This article appeared in The Canadian Medical Association Journal, November 23, 2000 edition.