Hong Kong’s oldest university plans to support the mass production of nuclear medicine in the city by setting up a production plant in the proposed Northern Metropolis megaproject to halve the cost as it aims to apply such treatment to more types of cancer.
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University of Hong Kong (HKU) researchers aim to develop a new form of nuclear medicine to treat nasopharyngeal cancer, which has one of the world’s highest incidence rates in southern China, after achieving initial success with two other types of tumours.
The university is looking to expand the application of nuclear medicine after achieving positive results in a clinical trial using a type of treatment known as radioligand therapy on patients with neuroendocrine tumours (NET) between 2020 and 2023, according to Professor Victor Lee Ho-fun, chairman of HKU’s department of clinical oncology.
Another form of nuclear medicine is already widely used in Hong Kong to treat prostate cancer.
“Nasopharyngeal cancer is common in Hong Kong, Macau, Guangdong province and Southeast Asia. We hope to develop new therapies to replace existing ones as the current ones were not very effective,” Lee said.
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According to the Centre for Health Protection, the cancer is more prevalent in southern China than in Western countries. In 2022, it was the 14th most common cancer in Hong Kong, accounting for about 2 per cent of all new local cases.