BC Cancer, UBC launch state of the art PET/CT scanner

BC Cancer and the University of British Columbia have launched Canada’s first and only Quadra PET/CT scanner in Vancouver.

The machine can perform a whole-body scan from head to pelvis twenty times faster than the older units.

Senior Executive Director of Research at BC Cancer Francois Benard says the new technology is encouraging.

“When I started my career, a PET scanner was, at most, 10 centimetres of detector coverage, and now this one has 106 centimetres of detector coverage. And there’s also a couple of systems that reach up to two metres of detectors. But, really, the one meter is what we need for both clinical and research applications, to cover the entire torso,” said Benard.

Benard says the breakthrough enhances patient diagnostics, fuels advanced radiopharmaceutical research, and supports targeted cancer treatment development.

He notes, while the machine may help diagnose people faster, a backlog of patient demand is due to a lack of working technologists.

“Everyone is looking for them. So we are taking active steps to increase recruitment, but we are going to do our best to increase capacity in Vancouver and continue increasing throughout the province. British Columbia is also opening up new cancer centres and will install PET scanners in new facilities as well, for example, in Abbotsford, Surrey, Burnaby and so on.”

Benard says the Quadra PET/CT scanner also supports cutting-edge research for targeted cancer therapies.

The $18.5-million initiative was funded through the Canada Foundation for Innovation B.C. Knowledge Development Fund and is already being used in Vancouver.