Winnipeg facility that produces essential cancer-screening material fails 4th Health Canada inspection – CBC
Non-compliant rating puts facility at risk of getting shut down by health regulator, experts say
Feb 16, 2024
A provincially run Manitoba facility that creates crucial materials used to detect cancer failed its latest Health Canada inspection after the regulator found the facility mishandled test results, didn’t follow proper sterility practices and inadequately trained workers.
This is the fourth time the Winnipeg Cyclotron Facility — the sole producer of medical isotopes in Manitoba — was found non-compliant by Health Canada in the past 10 years.
These isotopes are used to create the radioactive material — often called a tracer — that is injected into patients during a positron emission tomography, or PET, scan.
The most common tracer uses a form of radioactive sugar and accumulates in abnormal spots to highlight possible tumours in a scan. That can help a doctor decide where the cancer is, how far it has spread, whether it has responded to therapy or if a cancer has come back.
One doctor says the facility needs more staff and resources to meet the high bar set by Health Canada.
Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/winnipeg-isotopes-health-canada-1.7110996
