Ministers unveil new scanner to speed up diagnosis and treatment of disease

A new medical scanner which can help speed up the diagnosis and treatment of cancers and heart conditions has been unveiled in London.

The new full-body Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanner, which is up to 40 times more sensitive and up to 10 times faster than existing machines, forms part of a national hub and is co-managed by partners at Imperial College London and King’s College London.

The state-of-the-art scanner was officially unveiled by Government ministers at St Thomas’ Hospital this week (Wednesday 27^th November). It forms part of the National PET Imaging Platform (NPIP), with two total-body PET scanner based in Scotland and London.

Researchers hope the higher sensitivity and greater speed of the scanners will provide insights into anatomy and cellular function that have never been seen before, improving the detection, diagnosis and treatment of complex, multi-organ diseases, such as cancers and heart cardiovascular disease.

It will also give researchers unparalleled insights into human biology that ultimately leads to better healthcare.

Professor Eric Aboagye, from the Department of Surgery & Cancer at Imperial College London, said: “It is exciting to see this project advance and the first patients receiving scans.

"The increased speed and sensitivity of this whole-body PET scanner and the NPIP network will help to advance our understanding of disease, progress research and ultimately enable us to help more people beat various diseases.”

First patients

The first of several patients to use the new total- body PET scanner at St Thomas’ Hospital was Sarah Corfield, who has stage 4 melanoma and has received regular scans as a patient at Guy’s and St Thomas’ since 2018 as part of the diagnoses and treatment for her condition.

Ms Corfield said: “I’ve had so many PET scans, so I’m very used to the experience. Previously, the scans would take 30 minutes, the bed was very hard and the scanning table would move in and out, capturing the different images. It could be quite noisy, too.

“The new scanner was a good experience – it felt very open, and not at all claustrophobic. It was much quicker. I was done in 15 minutes, and they told me the images were much higher quality.”

The new whole-body scanner will feed findings into the new National PET Imaging Platform (NPIP). NPIP will build a bank of data from patients across the UK to improve diagnosis and aid researchers’ understanding of diseases, which can support the development of new medicines.

The new scanners work at greater speed to scan the whole body without the need for a patient to be repositioned multiple times which, together with exposing patients to significantly less radiation, means more people, including children, can access the power of total-body PET.

The scanners have the potential to scan 50% more patients per day than standard PET scanners, and can reveal subtle, early signs of multiple types of cancer as well as neurological, cardiovascular and musculoskeletal conditions.

Cutting-edge imaging

Peter Kyle MP, Secretary for Science and Technology, said: “Cutting-edge scanners like these and the intelligence they provide can help UK patients live longer, healthier lives while easing the pressure on our NHS.

“Ultimately, these kinds of medical advancements will quite literally save lives - through earlier detection, faster diagnoses and more effective treatment in complex illnesses like cancer, dementia and heart disease.

“Ensuring our world-leading researchers have access to the most advanced technology is key to them unlocking the next medical breakthroughs, in turn improving the lives of people across the UK and beyond, while also growing our economy.”

Launched in 2023, the National PET Imaging Platform (NPIP) will deploy total-body positron emission tomography (PET) across the UK, with two state-of-the-art total-body scanners based at hubs in Scotland and London.

Funded by £32 million from the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the project aims to accelerate scientific discoveries, leading to more advances for UK researchers and better outcomes for patients.

The programme will be delivered by the Medicines Discovery Catapult (MDC), the Medical Research Council (MRC) and Innovate UK, and will facilitate access to the imaging platforms for clinicians, academics and industry.

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This article is based on materials from the Medicines Discovery Catapult (MDC).

Feature image: Shutterstock