A MEDICAL unit dedicated to detecting and fighting cancer and other serious illnesses has been opened in the North-East by Lady Elsie Robson.

The Sir Bobby Robson Foundation PET Tracer Production Unit at Newcastle University, a facility to find more effective treatments, was established following a £625,000 donation from the charity.

The unit, and the new equipment it houses, an advanced biomarker technology ultra-compact cyclotron, was jointly funded by the university and the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation.

It is the first of its kind in Europe and only the second in the world.

The biomarker generator works by creating radioactive tracers which are given to patients who subsequently undergo scans to provide information on cancer and other diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

The information collected helps doctors to understand the location of the disease in each patient, how serious it is, and the underlying processes and pathways that are causing the illness.

Professor Herbie Newell, professor of cancer therapeutics at Newcastle University, said: “In CT and x-rays, the radiation comes from outside the patient, passing through the patient, and we take pictures of what comes out the other side.

“But in PET scanning, and what we’ll be able to do now with this new unit, we make the radioactivity and attach it to something called a tracer, which is injected into the patient so the radiation comes from the inside out.

“The first tracer we are making will be one where we will attach the radioactivity to a sugar, which is taken up into the cancer because, like any other cells, cancer cells need energy to grow.

“By taking an image of the patient after we’ve given them the tracer, we’ll be able to pinpoint exactly where the cancers are.”

PET scanning will be beneficial for patients on clinical trials of new drugs and the unit will be working closely with the team at the Sir Bobby Robson Cancer Trials Research Centre at the Northern Centre for Cancer Care.

Lady Elsie said: “When my husband and I began the foundation we had high hopes for what could be achieved and I know Bob would be absolutely thrilled to see this new hi-tech unit.

“This is what he wanted for his charity, to make a real difference for other people unlucky enough to find they have cancer.”