MRI scanner ‘vital for children’

DOCTORS at the national centre for treating children with cancer and leukaemia are restricted in carrying out vital investigative work on tumours because they have no MRI scanner.

Dr Fin Breatnach, Director of Haematology, Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplants at Crumlin Children’s Hospital, said children were suffering as a result. He said they could not adequately investigate many patients brought to the national service.

“An MRI scanner allows you to look inside the body, it shows tumours, how they spread. It helps the surgeon in planning his operation and it helps in determining the response to treatment. It is absolutely vital to our work.” Dr Breatnach said the hospital does provide CAT scans but, unlike the MRI scanner, they emit radiation, exposure to which can produce potentially long-term side effects.