TORONTO - Ontario will pay for an alternative diagnostic procedure for some 2,000 cancer patients in response to the global shortage of radioactive isotopes.
The Ministry of Health is putting aside $1.4 million in one-time funding to produce an alternative isotope called sodium fluoride.
Hamilton Health Sciences is coordinating an eight-week clinical trial to be held at six existing PET scan centres across Ontario.
Health Minister David Caplan calls the initiative an innovative solution to "ensure Ontarians have access to important diagnostic procedures."
The shortage of radioactive isotopes was caused by the recent shutdown of Canada's Chalk River reactor near Ottawa.
It is perhaps the biggest crisis ever to hit the field of nuclear imaging, says the organization representing the profession.
Chalk River provides more than one-third of the global supply of molybdenum-99 which is used to generate a radioactive isotope for nuclear imaging.
There are only five countries with reactors that produce the raw materials for medical isotopes -- Canada, Belgium, France, the Netherlands and South Africa.
