Nuclear medicine
SPECT nuclear medicine imaging procedure
ANSTO plays an important role in the nuclear medicine industry supplying 600,000 patient doses of radiopharmaceuticals each year.
Imaging organs and looking inside the human body was never thought possible a few decades ago, yet now nuclear medicine is one of the most relied upon medical techniques to diagnose and treat major disease. Nuclear medicine production is a core business of ANSTO, which provides 85 per cent of the nuclear medicines to Australian hospitals to help doctors diagnose and treat diseases such as cancer, heart disease, neurological disorders and other conditions.
A simple injection of a small amount of a low-level radioactive tracer into the body sends signals that are picked up by a special gamma camera, which turns them into an image showing organ activity. The doctor can then determine if an organ is malfunctioning or cancer is growing, and allocate the appropriate treatment. As with many state-of-the-art medical technologies, nuclear medicine is evolving all the time, allowing doctors to improve diagnosis and treatment approaches at even earlier stages of disease development, and ultimately saving more lives.
ANSTO's medical products
ANSTO's main nuclear medicine product is technetium-99m which is used in the majority of nuclear medicine imaging procedures, such as Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT). It also supplies reactor-produced isotopes (e.g., samarium-153, yttrium-90, chromium-51 and iodine-131) as well a variety of cyclotron-produced nuclear medicines(e.g., fluorine-18, iodine-123, gallium-67 and thallium-201) that are produced in cyclotrons.
In addition to nuclear medicine production, ANSTO also conducts important scientific research into developing new radioactive tracers to further enhance the diagnostic and treatment capabilities of doctors, therefore supporting this ever growing nuclear medicine industry. This area of research is being conducted by ANSTO LifeSciences.
More information
Read our comprehensive brochure: Nuclear medicine - your questions answered.