Cho Ray Hospital speaks out about the only cyclotron in the South ceasing operation

On June 23, Dr. Pham Thanh Viet, Deputy Director of Cho Ray Hospital, said that stopping the old cyclotron to install a new system is necessary to improve the quality of patient care.

According to Dr. Pham Thanh Viet, the cyclotron system at Cho Ray Hospital has been operating for 17 years, providing radioactive 18F-FDG to major hospitals such as Ho Chi Minh City Oncology Hospital, Military Hospital 175 and a small part to Kien Giang Hospital. Every day, this drug helps serve about 50 patients with PET/CT scans in the Southern region.

Patients register for PET/CT scan at Cho Ray Hospital.

Recently, due to frequent breakdowns of the old equipment, the hospital decided to replace it with a new cyclotron system with the most modern technology. The new machine has a much higher capacity, capable of supplying radioactive drugs for more than 10 PET/CT systems. The installation process is expected to be completed in 6 months.

Dr. Pham Thanh Viet emphasized that the new cyclotron will help more patients access modern, higher-quality technology, while increasing the number of patients served.

Cho Ray Hospital affirmed that although PET/CT is a modern method for diagnosing cancer and assessing metastasis, CT and MRI are still effective alternatives, reaching about 80% compared to PET/CT. Therefore, diagnosis and treatment will not be interrupted.

In particular, for patients with prostate cancer and neuroendocrine tumors, PET/CT scans at the hospital are not affected, because they do not use the radioactive drug 18F-FDG from the cyclotron.

GIAO SPIRIT

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/benh-vien-cho-ray-len-tieng-ve-lo-cyclotron-duy-nhat-o-mien-nam-ngung-hoat-dong-post800646.html