After years of waiting, the cyclotron has arrived in Martinique. The equipment for the detection of cancers was sent and set up on Friday afternoon (December 9, 2022) at the Caribbean Center for Nuclear Imaging at the Martinique University Hospital. (Re)see the report by Corine Jean-Joseph and Patrick-Jean Guitteaud.
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It is a real medical revolution. After more than 25 years of waiting, the cyclotron and its PET-scan, for more efficient imaging, have been delivered to the Caribbean Institute of Nuclear Imaging of the CHU.
A diagnostic tool that will allow better care for patients and doctors.
Nuclear imaging is lacking in diagnosis, lacking in patient pathways. It is essential for certain diseases for which it is part of the criteria and recommendations. Patients are forced to go to Guadeloupe to make their images or to France because the Guadeloupe cyclotron cannot make all the tracers. These patients will be able to be treated in Martinique.
Professor Karim Farid, head of the Caribbean Institute for Nuclear Imaging, interviewed by Corine Jean-Joseph
The device installed in Martinique is more powerful than that of Guadeloupe. Martinique could become the benchmark for the Caribbean in terms of nuclear medicine. The island is the only French territory to have a wide-field PET-scan, that is to say that it is 10 times more efficient than the others. An investment of 63 million euros.
The construction of the Caribbean Institute of Nuclear Imaging is still in progress, in the finalization phase. We will still have to show a little patience, the activation of the cyclotron is announced for June 2023.