National Health Service (NHS) Scotland plans to advance prostate cancer care by investing 2 million pounds (2.2 million euros) in PET imaging with the radiopharmaceutical gallium-68 (Ga-68) and prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA).
With the addition of gallium generators at four centers, Ga-68 PSMA PET scans will be performed at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, NHS Tayside, NHS Lothian, and NHS Grampian. The service is expected to be available in the second quarter of 2020.
"This equipment will allow clinicians to get quick and accurate information about whether advanced prostate cancer has spread to another part of the body," said Jeane Freeman, Scotland's health secretary, in a statement. "If there is no spread, the patient can be reassured, and if there are additional tumors, the medical team can put the right treatment in place."
