Dave Harvey
Commercial and environment correspondent, BBC West
Bbc
Researchers for researchers from the Bristol start-up try to transform the production of nuclear materials for cancer analyzes
Nuclear scientists think they have found a way to transform supply into vital materials used for the scanning of cancer patients.
Doctors use radio-isotopes to identify cancer growth in patients. But radioactive material is produced by aging reactors outside the United Kingdom, and sometimes food is interrupted.
Dr. Tom Wallace-Smith, Technical Director of Astral Systems of Bristol, said he developed a technique that produces the equipment here in the United Kingdom.
He said it could “eliminate delays that tormented” cancer treatments.
The Bristol team has developed a whole new approach, using nuclear fusion rather than fission.
And rather than requiring a new nuclear power plant, which would cost around 400 million pounds sterling, they can develop the material in small factories “just by hospitals” for around 1 million pounds sterling, said Dr. Wallace-Smith.
A patient is scanned at the royal infirmary of Bristol. Each year, 300,000 people receive analyzes using radio-isotopes
Each year, radiologists scan around 300,000 patients using these radioactive radio-isotopes, the consultants saying that they would not be able to do their job without them.
In October, the world of nuclear medicine was affected by a major crisis. Apart from the niche specialty, few noted it because doctors and health directors have implemented a rapidly assembled rationing system for vital analyzes.
Great Britain obtains all its supply of three reactors in Europe. In October, two of them closed for the planned interview at the same time, then the third made a fault.
“Something like 75% of our supply has been lost,” said Dr. Stephen Harden, of the Royal College of Radiologists.
All patients requiring urgent diagnostic scanners have been observed in time, but thousands of additional routine checks have been delayed.
The interruption lasted only three weeks, but she highlighted what Dr. Harden called the “aging and fragile” supply chain.
He explained: “It makes a very solid argument to make these radio-isotopes in the United Kingdom.”
Dr. Tom Wallace-Smith wants to “revive the British neutron industry”
In 2017, a report from the British government said that six nuclear reactors had made 85% of the radio-Isotopes used worldwide. By 2030, five of them will be retired.
Many of these reactors were built in the 1960s and 1970s. Building a new one is expensive and took years.
In the north of Wales, it is planned to build such a reactor, which will cost 400 million pounds sterling.
Like all nuclear fission factories, they are controversial. Their raw material is uranium, and the radio-Isotopes they produce are, by design, radioactive.
There are 18 staff members in the new start-up, Astral Systems, but this will develop during the next year.
Astral Systems has developed a technology that can now do the same radio-isotopes used in hospitals, on demand.
Small reactors could be built for less than 1 million pounds sterling, less than the price of the scanner that uses the radioactive product.
Now, the team builds a new type of merger reactor, which will be able to produce any type of radio-isotope for research or medicine, just by the hospitals that need it.
Dr. Randeep Kulshrestha heads the nuclear medicine department of the royal infirmary of Bristol
At the royal infirmary of Bristol, I looked at a patient lying on the cper bed, ready for his session. It was completely dressed, but the vital preparation was internal.
“Three hours before the scan, we inject patients with a small amount of radioactivity,” said the consulting radiologist, Dr. Randeep Kulshrestha.
Radio-isotope is labeled towards substances that will be interested in the doctors, for example bones.
The camera will then collect radioactivity in such a way that doctors can see how, for example, cancer has spread.
Images of a scan using radio-isotopes that show how cancer has spread to a patient’s bones. Orange or purple illuminated areas are affected.
Dr. Kulshrestha showed me photos taken from an anonymous patient, where doctors suspected that cancer had spread from his prostate to his bones.
Unfortunately for the person involved, the images are austere. The areas on the bones are on orange, where cancer has developed on their bones.
“These radio isotopes form a vital part of the diagnostic process,” said Dr. Kulshrestha.
“We couldn’t work without them these days.”
