“Many Vietnamese patients are still poor and we need to help them get the highest possible benefits,” Nguyen Xuan Canh, head of the Nuclear Medicine Department at Cho Ray Hospital said.

The two new radioactive drugs are Ga-68 PSMA and Ga-68 Dotatate, used in PET/CT scanning for patients with prostate cancer and neuroendocrine tumors. Cho Ray is the first medical facility in Vietnam to prepare and use the drugs.

Many patients suffering from these types of cancer have to have a PET/CT scan to assess condition, stage of diseases and level of damage. 

The previous radioactive drugs used for PET/CT scanning were not highly effective for prostate cancer and neuroendocrine tumors because of the diseases' biological pathway.  

The US Food and Drug Administration approved the use of Ga-68 PSMA for scanning, and Singapore was the first country in the region to use the drug.

After hearing about the use of the drug in Singapore, many patients and their families decided to fly to Singapore to have the scan with the specific radioactive drug.

However, only patients with good financial capability could afford the flight trip to Singapore and the procedure, which was up to VND100 million.

Cho Ray Hospital then decided to work on the drugs. In 2021, it began buying equipment and set to try the preparation. After three years of hard work, the two specific radioactive drugs were officially put into use at the hospital in November.

The two new radioactive drugs have a very short half-life cycle of 68 minutes. Therefore, drug production only begins when patients are prescribed to use the drug.

At Cho Ray Hospital, the drug preparation lasts 30 minutes, which is a chemical reaction chain consisting of three stages and 28 steps. Prepared drugs all undergo retesting to ensure quality before use.

With the two made-in-Vietnam drugs, the cost for PET/CT scanning is just one-fourth of the cost patients pay when going abroad.

Currently, 2-3 doses of the specific radioactive drugs are being made, and the maximum number of doses could be raised to five, if necessary. The hospital is ready to share the preparation method with other hospitals that have PET/CT systems.

To date, 27 patients have had a PET/CT scan with the two drugs.

Linh Trang