The $10m machine proving the key to early cancer diagnosis

Sydney’s Liverpool Hospital has today unveiled its latest weapon in treating cancer.

Ten million dollars has been spent on the ‘Cyclotron’ – a machine which produces radioisotopes that can identify cancers.

The radioisotopes are injected into cancer patients before PET scans, and act as tracers, lighting up specific cancer cells. 

Doctors can see exactly where the cancer is in the body and therefore treat it accordingly.

"This technology checks underneath the cells surface so we can look at what's going on in the cells, what the cancer cells are doing," Liverpool Hospital Head of Nuclear Medicine Dr Peter Lin told 9NEWS.

Doctors say it allows for cancer treatments to be personalised to an individual patient, and see whether drugs being used to treat them are working.

Elizabeth Doonan, 53, from Picton in the NSW Macarthur Region, is one of the first patients to use the new machine.

She was diagnosed with stage four diffuse B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma in October last year – her scans showing dark blotches which had spread through her body.

"I had a couple through my treatment and then at the end I had another one and there were no dots. No dots whatsoever in there which was an amazing feeling. It was mind blowing to see it could actually be healed that way," Ms Doonan said.

The new machine is expected to treat between 4000 and 5000 patients every year and is the first of its kind in western Sydney.

It also has the potential to identify Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, heart disease and brain injuries in the future.