The Hospital for Sick Children has built a new facility — complete with lead-lined walls — to treat children who have a rare and often fatal form of cancer with high doses of targeted radiation.

Eventually, up to 25 children with relapsed neuroblastoma — a cancer of the nerve tissue that is responsible for 10 per cent of cancer-related deaths in children worldwide — will be treated annually at the facility, which was officially opened Thursday.

High-dose metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) therapy is a type of radiation therapy that involves a much higher than normal dose of radiation being sent directly to tumours.

It is named for the MIBG molecule, which is administered intravenously along with a radioactive isotope of iodine. Carried by the molecule in the bloodstream, the radiation is delivered to the cancer cells. It shrinks the primary tumours and destroys metastasized cancer cells.

“As our research continues, we hope to make (this) therapy available to more Canadian children who may benefit from it,” said Dr. Sylvain Baruchel, director of the New Agent and Innovative Therapy Program in Haemotology/Oncology, noting that the treatment is part of a clinical trial.

Such targeted therapy is usually better tolerated by patients, he said, explaining that traditional treatments such as chemotherapy, radiation and immunotherapy attack both cancerous and healthy cells and cause harmful side effects.

The new unit, on the eighth floor of the hospital, was specially constructed to minimize the risk of radiation exposure. It required approval from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.

Not only are the four-room unit’s walls, ceiling and floor lined with lead, but it also has its own pharmacy where the drug can be prepared. Without this, hallways and an elevator would have to been cleared so the radioactive drug could be safely transported from the hospital’s main radio pharmacy.

The 500-square-foot unit also includes a room for parents and an anteroom. Parents and staff must wear dosimeters, which measure radiation exposure. As well, the patient’s bed is surrounded by portable, leaded shields.

Baruchel said that while patients get higher than normal doses of radiation, there is little to no risk of exposure to anyone else.

“The amount of radiation to which you would be exposed living in Toronto for one year is higher than what parents will get over five days,” he said.

Baruchel said that while research is ongoing, the treatment is already known to be beneficial.

Patients with high-risk neuroblastoma who have relapsed have a 20 per cent chance of still being alive two years after MIBG therapy, he said, adding that without it, they may only survive six months.

“Eventually this treatment will be integrated into upfront treatment to very high risk patients,” he said.

“This is just another treatment, it is not the only one,” Baruchel said, adding that chemotherapy, surgery and immunotherapy can also be used.

One of the biggest benefits is that it improves the quality of patients’ lives. While one infusion of the high-dose radiation will require a week-long stay, patients would have otherwise had to undergo more than six rounds of traditional chemotherapy over several months.

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Montreal is the only other jurisdiction in Canada to offer such therapy.

The new $5-million unit is named after the Garron family, who made a $30-million donation to the hospital in 2010 .