Cancer scan delay fears over isotope shortages

Published on Saturday 6 September 2008 01:23

HUNDREDS of patients face delays to vital scans for cancer and other diseases due to a "severe shortage" of imaging agents, experts warn today.

A global shortage of medical isotopes – chemicals in special forms used in scans of hearts, bones, kidneys and some cancers – will cause delays and cancellations.

British hospitals are receiving less than 50 per cent of expected supplies and rations are expected to drop even further, the experts say.

The isotopes are used in more than 80 per cent of routine diagnostic nuclear imaging procedures.

Professor Alan Perkins, honorary secretary at the British Nuclear Medicine Society, said: "The expected number of people who will be affected is quite difficult to determine at the moment. But we are certainly talking about hundreds of patients here.

"Prof Perkins also warned that a government target of scanning patients within six weeks could mean that some doctors give patients inappropriate tests.

• Separate research involving 80,000 Japanese adults suggests that those who take exercise or do physical work are less likely to develop a range of cancers.