If the people of northeastern Ontario want a PET (Positron Emission Tomography) scanner, they're likely going to have to raise $8 to $10 million to buy it themselves, according to Sudbury Regional Hospital senior vice-president Joe Pilon.
The hospital's board of directors passed a motion at its Oct. 13 meeting, approving the creation of a northeastern Ontario PET advisory group, which will develop a business case for a PET scan machine in the northeast.
The group, which will likely be organized within a month, will include representatives from the hospitals in Sudbury, Timmins, Sault Ste. Marie and North Bay, diagnostic imaging specialists, financial specialists, municipal representatives and patient representatives.
Given that Sudbury Regional Hospital is currently trying to pare down a deficit, it definitely can't afford to buy the machine on its own, said Pilon.
“The ministry (of health and long-term care) has made it clear that if we were to go in this direction, we would have to buy the PET,” said Pilon.
“I think there's interest in the community already for fundraising. I don't see the fundraising as a particular barrier.”
The price tag to bring a machine to the northeast is doubled from what it would normally cost because a cyclotron would have to be purchased to produce an isotope supply to run it, said Pilon.
The isotopes needed to run PET scanners have a very short shelf life, he said.
PET scanners provide information on the location and extent of metabolic activity of abnormal tissues, such as cancer.
About 13,500 people in the northeast have signed a petition to get a PET scanner in Sudbury. Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas, who launched the petition, has been regularly presenting the latest signatures to the provincial government.
Pilon also said he's “not certain” the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care will provide the $1 to $1.5 million needed to operate a PET scanner in northeastern Ontario.
There are already nine PET scanners in Ontario, and they are underutilized, he said.
Even if the province did agree to provide operational funding, the uses PET scanners are approved for by the ministry are so limited that only part of the cost would be covered.
Pilon estimated that a PET scanner would be needed about 200 times per year in the northeast for uses currently approved by the ministry.
There is also the potential that the hospital could get operating money by using the PET scanner for clinical trials, he said. The hospital could also charge patients for the use of the machine, said Pilon.
“We're going to have to work with the government to look at alternatives so that we can do PET, but not have to take the operating dollars for PET out of our global funds,” said Pilon.
“That would mean that something else in health care in northeastern Ontario would have to be given up. We don't think that's the right way to do things. They're going to have to do something different for northeastern Ontario.”
Pilon said northeastern Ontario had to fight to get its own cancer centre and access to MRI and CT scans. “This is just another fight northeastern Ontario is going to have to wage,” he said.
Terminal cancer patient Sam Bruno, who has been fighting to bring a PET scanner to Sudbury, said he is “so pleased” the hospital has created a PET advisory group.
“Any step forward, to me, is certainly going in the right direction,” he said.
Bruno said he does question the costs put forward by the hospital. “I thought it was going to be much less.”
The ministry of health needs to find a “more creative solution” to bring a PET scanner to the northeast, said Bruno.
“Last week, I didn't think I was going to make it. I was in the emergency. I was sick for four days. My pain level was at 10,” he said.
“I'm telling you, when you're like that, you can't travel those distances. I don't care what they say. The bottom line is we don't have one (a PET scanner) close enough. Let them come up with some plan. I don't care what plan they use. But the bottom line is we're too far.”
Approved uses for PET in Ontario
- Solitary pulmonary nodule - when biopsy is not available
- Thyroid cancer - recurrent/persistent disease
- Germ cell tumours - recurrent disease
- Colorectal cancer - recurrent disease after surgery
- Lymphoma - residual disease/Hodgkins lymphoma - assessment of chemo response
- Non-small cell lung cancer - evaluation of curative chemo/radiation
- Clinical stage III non-small cell lung cancer - evaluation of curative chemo/radiation
- Limited disease small cell lung cancer - staging/evaluation for curative chemo/radiation
- Cardiac patients - myocardial viability assessment - insufficient viable myocardium
- Ongoing clinical trials
