Help fund a Total Body PET-CT scanner to see cancer more clearly

Experts at The Christie want to significantly improve cancer care for patients with a new, innovative piece of equipment called a Total Body PET-CT scanner. This would help them scan more patients and look at cancer in ways they’ve never been able to before.

Can you donate to The Christie Charity today and help offer Christie patients the very best in cancer care with this cutting-edge scanner?

What a Total Body PET-CT scanner can do

PET-CT scanning (Total Position Emission Tomography-Computed Tomography) is important for many cancer patients’ care. It helps diagnose a range of different cancers, show how far they’ve spread and determine the best treatments.

Standard PET-CT scans can take up to half an hour, with scanners at The Christie completing around 16 scans a day. Patients must lie totally still throughout the scan, which people with certain medical conditions can find hard. They also have an injection of a small amount of radioactive dye called a tracer to analyse how certain parts of the body are working.

Total Body PET-CT scanners are the latest and very best in PET-CT technology. They can scan the entire body quickly, in one go, and produce high quality images that help identify cancer more easily and develop targeted treatment plans faster.

A Total Body PET-CT scan takes as little as 5 minutes. As scans are faster, they are more comfortable for patients too. They also involve a much smaller exposure to radiation – which means PET-CT scans will be a safer option for pregnant women, babies and people with certain medical conditions.

But right now, the nearest Total Body PET-CT scanners are in London and Edinburgh, over 200 miles away. The Christie Charity has pledged £7m to bring one to Manchester and transform patient care in the North West. Your donation today would help make that possible.

How a Total Body PET-CT scanner will help more cancer patients

Bringing a Total Body PET-CT scanner to The Christie would increase scanning capacity, offer scans to more patients, and potentially treat cancer earlier.

The Total Body PET-CT scanner would increase the number of scans for research at The Christie from 300 to at least 1,000 a year. It would also help researchers understand how cancer in one organ has an impact across the body. They could then share their findings nationally to develop kinder treatments and improve treatment outcomes for patients in the future.

This would help patients like John. John was diagnosed with cancer in 2019. He’s now in remission but returns to The Christie every 4 months to have a scan. Read John’s story to see why he’s backing our campaign to bring a Total Body PET-CT scanner to The Christie.

Some of the leading global experts in cancer care, medicines and research can already be found at The Christie and across Manchester and the North West. The Christie also has its own PET-CT academy, led by Dr Prakash Manoharan and Dr Heather Williams, which has supported the growth of PET-CT throughout the UK.

With a Total Body PET-CT scanner, The Christie would be able to attract even more bright minds to the region and help to train the country’s next generation of cancer experts. It will give our researchers new and powerful insights into cancer that will ultimately lead to better patient outcomes and care.

This incredible new scanner will make a real difference to so many people facing the toughest times of their lives.

With more scans for patients and for research, please donate today to help our experts transform their knowledge of cancer and develop better treatment plans to improve outcomes for cancer patients.