SA's first cyclotron at the heart of SAHMRI's cancer research ADELAIDE'S newborn research institute holds the promise of capitalising on solid foundations - one of which is a 20,000 kilogram piece of equipment likely to be worth a lot more than its weight in gold for this state. In the basement of the remarkable SAHMRI building - 10 metres below the ground level of North Terrace - is a concrete bunker that houses the GE Healthcare cyclotron, which will help make radioactive tracers to be used for scans to detect various cancers. SAHMRI will apply next year for a Therapeutic Goods Administration licence to make the tracers. For some of the 600 researchers anticipated to be on site, the cyclotron is a critical first step in undertaking world-leading cancer detection and other research. Prab Takhar with the rarely seen inside chamber of the cyclotron. Pic: Mike Burton. More importantly, the tracers will possibly help save thousands of lives, not just in South Australia, but also interstate. Tracer fluoro-deoxy-glucose (FDG) for positron emission tomography (PET) scans, which help detect various cancers, is currently flown in from interstate in limited quantities because of its short shelf-life of less than 12 hours and because it is expensive to make. Not all airlines will fly the radio-active materials and those which do can face delays because of weather or other events - leading to the last-minute cancellations of procedures for patients who then face anxious waits for the next opportunity. Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and WA have cyclotrons. At SAHMRI, the cyclotron, processing units known as hotcells, four chemistry synthesizers, Quality Control equipment, dispensing systems, radiation monitoring equipment, including shielding and lead containers, are all part of the Molecular Imaging and Therapy Research Unit - a $20 million investment project. Unit director Prab Takhar, who joined SAHMRI from GE Healthcare in Sweden, knows the cyclotron and other units inside out after having spent significant time with them at GE. "The research possibilities are endless," he says. The Adelaide cyclotron and synthesizers will first produce FDG, which will be used by clinicians to diagnose and stage cancers and decide on treatment. This is a versatile tracer that has been shown globally to change and aid the quality of treatment and prognosis for cancer patients. He explains the complicated mix of physics and chemistry that helps deliver the final product. The cyclotron is a particle accelerator which produces charged particles that can be used for medical, industrial and research processes. "The cyclotron is designed to accelerate particles to sub-light speeds and then convert one type of material into another material," he says. It is made up two 'D' shaped electrodes in a vacuum chamber, which sits in a narrow gap between poles of a large magnet, creating a perpendicular magnetic field. We first introduce pure hydrogen gas into the cyclotron and apply a high frequency alternating voltage across the electrodes. This turns the gas into plasma made up of accelerating proton particles (H-) which circulate within the magnetic field. Eventually they come out of the magnetic field and hit a target - a rare form of water called O18 imported by SAHMRI at $80 per gram. The resulting radioactive Fluorine-18 water is pushed through using helium gas first to the hot cells and then the chemistry synthesizer units where it is run over special columns so the water can be separated. The captured Flourine-18 solution gets placed on a sugar molecule in the synthesizer through an automated chemical process. The tracer is stored in a vial ready for injection into a person for a PET scan. Mr Takhar says all the processes will be controlled by computers driven by experienced scientists. "The radioactive sugar will be taken up by everything in the body that has rapidly growing cells, for instance, cancer cells and it remains in the location/s, making identification easy during the scan," he said. A tiny amount of radioactive waste in the form of a small foil will be stored in a vault on site until the Environment Protection Authority and SAHMRI decide to dispose it, possibly every five or ten years depending on volumes produced. Mr Takhar says there are plans for other imaging and therapeutic drugs to be developed through national and global collaborations. SAHMRI is also importing the rare nickel 64 which is processed in the cyclotron to create copper 64. This is eventually used to make pellets for PET scan research. "We expect to see growing demand on both the research and supply side which will help drive volumes processed at SAHMRI," Mr Takhar adds. Pure gas enter the cylindrical machine made up of two D shaped electrodes in a vacuum chamber between poles of a large magnet. High-frequency voltage is applied to the electrodes. Gas moves at sub-light speeds within the magnetic field. Eventually turns to plasma made up of radioactive protons which hit a special target - rare forms of imported chemicals. This radioactive water is then processed using other machines to produce tracers, usually for PET scans to detect cancer. It can also be used to create solid radioactive targets.