Kelowna’s wait for cancer diagnosis tool nearing an end
Kelowna cancer centre to get 1 of 1st PET/CT scanners outside Vancouver area now that $5-million goal has been achieved
Cancer patients in the Okanagan will no longer have to travel to Vancouver for an important diagnostic scan once the local cancer agency gets its own PET/CT scanner.
The BC Cancer Foundation announced Wednesday it had completed its one-year, $5-million campaign to bring a PET/CT scanner to the BC Cancer Agency in Kelowna.
“This is the most amount of money we’ve raised in the Interior in one year,” said Sarah Roth, president and CEO of the BC Cancer Foundation, adding more than 2,100 donors contributed to the campaign. “That is historical for us, and we hope that we can continue to see that level of support for this community, because unfortunately the need will not go away.”
PET/CT scanners have been proven as the most effective tool for obtaining a complete picture of a patient’s cancer, with an ability to detect cancer cells at an early stage, even before a tumour has formed.
Currently, the only two PET/CT scanners in B.C. are in Vancouver, forcing more than 1,000 patients to travel there from the Interior each year.
“Our patients need PET/CT because it helps determine where their cancers are, it helps us avoid unnecessary surgeries from time to time, unnecessary systemic therapies or chemotherapies and unnecessary radiotherapy,” said Dr. Ross Halperin, radiation oncologist and regional medical director with the cancer agency. “For us, it means the ability to provide the best possible service to our patients, and nothing matters more.”
The $5 million will fund one PET/CT scanner in Kelowna, which will be housed in a new building, funded by the Ministry of Health, between the cancer centre and Kelowna General Hospital. Construction of the new building will begin in spring 2019, and the scanner is expected to be running by summer 2020.
“We’ve also created space should there be a need for additional imaging equipment in this space, because the reality is there will be increasing cancer cases and we need to be planning for that,” said Roth.
The BC Cancer Foundation also recently completed a $5-million campaign to bring a PET/CT scanner to Victoria.