Vietnam has new radioactive medicine, cancer patients do not need to go abroad

The above information was shared by Cho Ray Hospital (Ho Chi Minh City) on the morning of December 6. The two new radioactive drugs used in PET/CT scans are Ga-68 PSMA in prostate cancer and Ga-68 Dotatate in neuroendocrine tumors.

According to Dr. Nguyen Xuan Canh, Head of the Department of Nuclear Medicine, Cho Ray Hospital, these two radioactive drugs are widely used for patients worldwide and were approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2020 and 2016.

However, not all countries can produce Ga-68 PSMA and Ga-68 Dotatate. Therefore, domestic patients often have to go abroad when they need to have PET/CT scans with these two drugs.

The Department of Nuclear Medicine, Cho Ray Hospital has spent a long time researching, exchanging expertise, and preparing human resources to focus on research. On November 7, this place became the first unit in Vietnam to successfully prepare and put the two types of radioactive drugs mentioned above into use.

After nearly a month, 12 cases of prostate cancer and 9 cases of neuroendocrine tumors were applied PET/CT imaging with new radioactive drugs at Cho Ray Hospital. The results showed the effectiveness of these 2 techniques in diagnosing and monitoring disease treatment.

Dr. Canh said that Cho Ray Hospital has deployed PET/CT scans with F-18 FDG to evaluate glucose metabolism in many types of cancer since 2009. However, because prostate cancer cells and neuroendocrine tumor cells often use little glucose, the diagnostic results are not high.

With the new technique to detect 2 types of cancer, clinicians will have a direction for diagnosis, stage division, treatment selection and monitoring of treatment results. From there, it brings opportunities for domestic patients to access new technical methods in the world, contributing to improving the quality of medical examination and treatment and saving a lot of costs for patients.

PET/CT technology is a high-tech imaging diagnostic system, with the potential for many advantages in diagnosing and monitoring the treatment of diseases such as cancer, neurological and cardiovascular diseases. This technology has been applied at Cho Ray Hospital since 2009, with an average of 12-15 PET/CT scans received each day.