An 18-ton medical device, installed in a 23-square-meter bunker more than four meters underground, and protected by two-meter concrete walls. This is the new technological revolution that has been incorporated into the Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR) and promises to be one of the most important scientific revolutions for Catalan public hospitals. It is a cyclotron, the first installed in a public hospital in all of Catalonia.
A device that, like synchrotrons ---such as the Alba Synchrotron installed in Cerdanyola del Vallès---, has the function of accelerating particles, but with a simpler and smaller structure. In this case, the cyclotron will be used to create a wide variety of radioisotopes, a central component of radiopharmaceuticals, which have the potential to be used for the diagnosis and treatment of diseases such as cancer, as well as neurological, inflammatory, or cardiac pathologies. Thus, this new technological tool will allow advancing in more effective personalized molecular medicine treatments.
The origin of cyclotrons dates back to 1929 when American physicist Ernest Lawrence devised a device capable of accelerating particles at high speed in a circular trajectory. The cyclotron installed in Vall d'Hebron is a Cyclone Kiube 300 model device, which allows generating isotopes that until now had to be imported from other countries, such as Amsterdam.
Among other applications, when these radioisotopes are introduced into the human body, they help detect anomalies or diseases such as cancer. "These particles are especially useful for performing imaging tests, as they help us see how tissues and organs function in real time," tests that are essential for the early diagnosis of cancer and various neurological, inflammatory, or cardiac diseases, as emphasized by Manel Escobar, clinical director of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at Vall d'Hebron. Thus, some of these radioisotopes generated in the cyclotron could help detect the existence of tumors, as well as their location and extension. And, consequently, they also open the door to the creation of new treatments for these tumors.
Despite the great potential of these particles, one of their weaknesses is that some of them have a very short useful life, which in some cases does not exceed a few minutes, a fact that prevents them from being transported to clinical nuclear medicine services to manufacture these personalized treatments or perform diagnostic tests. For this reason, it is essential that the healthcare center has a device of these characteristics within its own facilities, being able to produce drugs that until now were very difficult to obtain because they directly did not enter the commercial circuit.
Thanks to the installation of the cyclotron in the healthcare center's facilities, the particles obtained thanks to this device can be directly treated in the VHIR laboratories, adjacent to the underground bunker where it has been installed, to produce a wide variety of radiopharmaceuticals, some of which are not yet available in Catalonia. To transport this apparatus to the hermetic chamber, a crane specifically built for the occasion was used, which mobilized this cyclotron in two halves to its destination at the VHIR. A transport that lasted up to three days and involved fifteen people, to ensure that strict safety measures and control of the emitted radiation were followed.
With this new device, Vall d'Hebron Hospital and VHIR advance in their expansion and incorporation of cutting-edge technologies. "This equipment is another piece of the new Vall d'Hebron that we are building and that implies the creation and acquisition of new highly complex equipment," highlighted Albert Salazar, manager of Vall d'Hebron University Hospital.
In fact, the cyclotron is the first piece of the Ciclocat project, led by the Catalan Institute of Health to serve the entire Catalan public nuclear medicine system and advance towards more efficient and accessible precision medicine. The objective of this project is to involve specialists from various areas and specialties ---from cardiology, neurology, oncology, pharmacy or radiodiagnosis--- to offer more personalized and effective treatments.