SPECIALIST doctors have formed an action committee to campaign for what would be the region's first nuclear superscanner.

Experts believe that lives are being lost because there are only five positron emission tomography (PET) scanners in the UK, all of which are in London.

Two weeks ago, three charities came together to call for at least 15 PET scanners to be installed around the country within five years.

But the director of Newcastle-based Northern Cancer Network has warned that it could be years before the first North-East patient is scanned in this way.

Director Moira Davidson confirmed that senior doctors from the region recently formed a group to look at ways of bringing a PET scanner to the North-East.

The scanner can detect cancers at very early stage by picking up unusual activity at a cellular level.

Generally speaking, the earlier tumours are detected the more chance the patient has of a successful outcome.

Lung cancer specialists are particularly keen to see more PET scanners installed in NHS hospitals because they can be used to guide surgeons.

Every year, small numbers of North-East patients travel to London to have PET scans on the NHS.

Apart from finding the resources to purchase a £4m scanner, it costs £1m a year to run and needs an on-site cyclotron, a device used to accelerate nuclear particles.

Len Fenwick, chief executive of the Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust, said a PET scanner would be an attractive proposition but needed to be planned as part of a national strategy.

Norman Wright, who lives near Thirsk, North Yorkshire, believes an early PET scan would have given his late wife, Christine, a better chance of beating her advanced sarcoma.

They travelled to the US to try to save her life but American doctors, who routinely use PET scanners, found the cancer had spread too far.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said: "We are currently drawing up a framework to advise the NHS how to plan the installation of more PET machines and ensure the necessary support services are in place to run them."