New radioactive tracers facility in Montreal at The Neuro
A new facility at The Neuro will produce radioactive tracers for cancer diagnosis and imaging research. The Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Unit at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital – The Neuro - at McGill University has been approved by Health Canada to manufacture, package and export radioactive tracers to hospitals and facilities across Quebec and Ontario. The facility at The Neuro is currently manufacturing GludefTM (fludeoxyglucose F18) for, and in collaboration with, Lantheus Medical Imaging. The Neuro is only the third GludefTM manufacturing site in Canada.
Fludeoxyglucose F18, a mildly radioactive glucose-analog, is used in diagnostic imaging for the detection of numerous cancers, including lung cancer. The ability to locally produce radioactive tracers brings added benefit to hospitals and research facilities in Quebec and Ontario, as the radioactivity needed for imaging decays quickly and the product must be used within a short period of time.
Dr. Jean-Paul Soucy, Director of the PET Unit at The Neuro, and Dr. Esther Schirrmacher, Assistant Professor at The Neuro, led the team through the rigorous process to acquire an establishment license from Health Canada and collaborated with colleagues at Lantheus Medical Imaging on the manufacturing process. The facility at The Neuro is part of the word-leading McConnell Brain Imaging Centre, home to the first PET scanner in Canada.
About The Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital:
The Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, The Neuro, is a world-class Canadian academic medical centre, that combines an internationally leading research centre at McGill University, dedicated to unlocking the secrets of the brain and neurological diseases, with specialized hospital services as part of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), that ensure the highest quality of advanced and compassionate care for patients with neurological diseases. This unique structure has became a model for institutions around the world, giving unprecedented hope for some of our most debilitating conditions, from epilepsy to stroke to Parkinson’s disease. The Neuro has become one of the largest neuroscience institutes in the world, attracting some of the best minds from around the globe.