Ontario nuclear plant to produce material for life-saving cancer treatment [Video]

Ontario will announce plans Thursday to produce a nuclear medical isotope that forms the essential component in a life-saving treatment for liver cancer, one of the leading causes of cancer deaths.

The plan involves creating the medical isotope yttrium-90 (also known as Y-90) at the Darlington nuclear generating station in partnership with a pair of Ottawa-based companies, which transform the radioactive raw material into a cancer-fighting drug called TheraSphere.

The two companies — BWXT Medical and Boston Scientific — already manufacture the treatment in Ontario but until now, have had to import their supply of isotopes from nuclear reactors outside of Canada. 

The deal to produce the isotope at Darlington will ease concerns about access to the raw material for TheraSphere, which has been provided to more than 100,000 liver cancer patients worldwide, said Peter Pattison, president of Boston Scientific’s interventional oncology franchise in Ottawa. 

“Now we have a situation …