Shortage of radioisotopes

mke · 12-07-2007, 09:39 PM

This is big news in Ontario, and it may affect many in the US as well. The atomic plant that produces molybdinum(sp?) in Ontario has been shut down, originally for routine maintainence but then other problems arose and it will be off line longer than expected. Currently they don't expect it to be fully operational until early January at best. This stuff is sent out almost daily to hospitals where they put it in some gadget that produces technicium (sp?) and that is the stuff that gets injected for MUGAs and bone scans and other things too.

This plant was the supplier for almost half of the world's supply. There are other suppliers in Europe and Asia but they can't crank up production to double their capacity. I always knew that the isotopes came from this place, but I had no idea that they were such a major supplier.

You can imagine that there is some hoopla going on here with the present government blaming the previous one, doctors thoroughly peeved, scans cancelled, just a real mess and even after the isotope is available again there will be a backlog to deal with.

Things will probably be better in the US and Europe where there are more alternatives for sources and for other types of scans. I do hope so.

PinkGirl · 12-07-2007, 10:44 PM

Hi Mke
I've been following this in the news too. At first I read that Chalk River was going to be shut down for 2 weeks, but now it looks like it might be into the second week of January. Chalk River supplies the raw material to MDS Nordion who manufactures the isotopes and other radio pharmaceuticals. They are a major world supplier. I read that Atomic Energy Canada closed down Chalk River after an inspection showed that they had problems with some kind of water cooling pumps. I had no idea that they were the main supplier of this radio active stuff. Hopefully they will get everything fixed ASAP.

mrsd · 12-08-2007, 11:51 AM

We here in Nova Scotia have been affected by this shortage, our local hospital has announced that they are unable to do nuclear medicine tests until they recieve a new supply. It's very scary for us Herceptin gals as we need to have our heart function monitored.

Becky · 12-08-2007, 11:56 AM

As far as mugas go, your onc can switch to echocardiograms instead. They work just as well and require no radiation or radioactivity. Its the bone scans and PET that will be more of a problem.

Andrea Barnett Budin · 12-08-2007, 01:33 PM

SILLY QUESTION... IS THE CONTRAST FOR CTs THE SAME AS THE RADIOACTIVE STUFF Y'ALL ARE TALKING ABOUT?

I HAVE SCANS, SCHEDULED UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTIFIED, NEXT THURS 12/13 (CHEST/ABD/PELV -- W/ AND W/O CONTRAST).

BTW, I ALW GET ECHOs VS MUGAs. CARDIOLOGIST BELIEVES JUST AS RELIABLE AND NOT RADIOACTIVE DYE NECESSARY. THE LESS INVASIVE THE BETTER...

THE CHALK RIVER, CANADA THING IS A REVELATION. AND REALLY SCARY. IMAGINE THE POTENTIAL SIDE EFFECTS OF THIS TEMPORARY LOSS... YIKES!

Andi

Becky · 12-08-2007, 02:07 PM

The contrast for CT and MRI is not radioactive. It is just a special dye.

Andrea Barnett Budin · 12-09-2007, 06:05 PM

Thanks, Becky. I knew you'd know... *Special* dye. Lucky us.

Still drink lots of extra water that day to get it out of my system...

Andi

Alice · 12-09-2007, 10:36 PM

Just so everyone is aware, I never had a mugua. I only had echo's. My onc and I agree if you don't have to have radioactive material going through your body, when there is a test that can show you what you need to know without it, why put yourself through the risk? The only reason I can think of having a mugua instead of an echo is that it takes out some of the margin for human error. I think the less radioactive materials are worth the presumption of human error myself.
Alice

mke · 12-09-2007, 11:33 PM

I agree with you Alice, even though I mostly had MUGAs. If any good comes from this supply crisis it may be through more emphasis on non-radioactive methods of assessment when they are possible.

hutchibk · 12-10-2007, 01:16 AM

Radioisotopes are what they use to treat Thyroid cancers... and hyperthyroidism, which one of my cats suffers from. I wonder if this will affect his chances for treatment?

Susan2 · 12-10-2007, 06:51 AM

There are still some shipments getting through. However, they don't know from day to day. I was told that they have to get daily shipments because the dye only lasts one day. I was able to have a muga last week and passed - yeah!

mke · 12-10-2007, 10:52 AM

I think the cat will be OK, thyroid is usually treated with an iodine isotope.

hutchibk · 12-10-2007, 11:06 AM

Oh yeah - you are right. I knew it was something similar!

StephN · 12-10-2007, 11:14 AM

No problem scheduling a PET/CT here.
The machine is new to my cancer center so they must have stocked up!

I am having it tomorrow and they now have a whole list of do's and don't's. One new one is not to exercise in the 24-hour period prior to the test.
Although if I follow that and the low carbohydrate diet, I don't have to have the Atavan.
Guess they are being stricter with the instructions to try to prevent false positives or questionable areas.
Plus for me they have previous such scans to compare to.

Joan M · 12-10-2007, 07:48 PM

It's already happening here.

I'm scheduled for a Muga scan and a bone scan, and I was alerted that the scans may be cancelled in the last minute if the facilities don't receive the radioactive isotope.

Scans at both facilities have already been cancelled in the last few weeks and everybody had to be rescheduled.

The facilities get shipments every day, and if a shipment doesn't come on the days of my tests, I'll be rescheduled.

I heard that Canda is the world's largest supplier.

StephN · 12-11-2007, 11:03 PM

Following up on this thread.

While going through the preparations for my PET/CT today I chatted with the nuclear med tech. She said she gets an email on this subject every day from suppliers/purchasing or someone. She said that for PET they do not use Technicium - that is only for MUGA's, bone, heart and some other specialized scans.

The radioactive glucose for the PET is different as it is for Positron - so there is a difference, but I did not get into the fine points there.

So, PET and CT scans are not affected by this shortage. CT's use a dye contrast.

She did say that since they have been ordering the individialized doses and not in bulk they have not had supply interrupted.

Joan M · 12-12-2007, 07:27 PM

My bone scan for next week was cancelled and moved to January.