A Dotatate Positron Emission Tomography machine, costing around $300,000, will benefit prostate cancer sufferers as well as those with neuroendocrine tumours.

Director of Cancer Services Dr Elias Nasser said the latter was a rare cancer which primarily begins in the GUT, and often difficult to be diagnosed.

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"It's rarer tumour but increasingly is recognised," Dr Nasser told the Mercury.

"[It's] often harder to be diagnosed and it's often diagnosed at advanced stages.

"This machine allows us to image this tumour more accurately [by picking up where it is in the body] then direct appropriate treatments like surgery or chemotherapy."

During fortnightly "multidisciplinary team meetings" with other cancer specialists from the region, Dr Nasser said they discuss around one to two new cases each month.

"These people routinely have to go to Sydney to have their imaging," he said.

Meanwhile, the diagnostic machine can also be used for prostate cancer sufferers in helping doctors prescribe the best treatment.

"In terms of diagnosing whether the cancer is localised or whether it has actually spread," Dr Nasser said.

"Based on [this] appropriate treatment options can then be initiated."

Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in Australian mean and the third most common cause of cancer death, according to the Cancer Council.

In 2016, there were 3248 deaths caused by prostate cancer.

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The funding for the new machine was thanks to a group of volunteers, the Illawarra Cancer Carers', who have fundraised for local cancer services for the last 29 years.

Their annual Banquet at the Beach raised $140,000 in 2018, with the funding matched by a group of Illawarra doctors to enable the purchase of the Dotatate machine.

Long-time member and current president Sue Maidman said they were proud to have raised $4 million over the decades, with more money to come from their 2019 Banquet being held this weekend.

"It makes me feel very, very proud to be part of the group, and we've got a lot of hard working people," she said.

Funds raised for the upcoming event will be directed to Port Kembla Hospital Palliative Care Unit, Breast Cancer Illawarra and David Berry Hospital.

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