The University Hospital Birmingham has recently opened its doors to a new groundbreaking £4.5 million state-ofthe- art unit to aid the fight against cancer. Patients visiting the new West End development, based at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, will benefit from rapid, local access to the latest diagnostic technology and from two additional Radiotherapy linear accelerators.
£4.5 million cancer unit opens
The development includes a Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Centre, which is the result of a four year collaboration between University Hospital Birmingham (UHB) and Alliance Medical and was opened by national cancer director, Professor Mike Richards.
Chris Boivin, UHB’s head of nuclear medicine, said: “This development is at the cutting edge of technology. The PET scanner will be able to scan up to 4,000 patients per year, replacing the mobile PET service which has previously been provided at the facility. PET/CT scanners provide state-of-the-art imaging for cancer patients. The PET scan uses an injection of a radioactive tracer which is very good at lighting up growing tumours.
“However with a PET scan alone, it is often difficult to work out exactly where the tumours are. By adding a CT scan at the same time, tumour location can be seen with a greater degree of accuracy, guiding biopsies, surgery and radiotherapy.”
