Dear Molecular Imaging Insider,
In this edition of the Insider, you'll get an exclusive first look at a study from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where researchers found that FDG-PET/CT could be an appropriate imaging tool in pediatric patients with osteosarcoma due to the higher FDG uptake in those tumors.
But glucose avidity is not as strong in other pediatric sarcomas such as Ewing's sarcoma, indicating that PET/CT might not be as valuable in those patients, according to the UCLA research team. Click here to learn more.
This Insider comes on the heels of the SNM annual meeting in Salt Lake City, where some 5,100 attendees received updates on important issues facing the profession today, as well as details on groundbreaking research that will shape the discipline tomorrow.
One priority for the near future is appropriate comparative effectiveness research and how it must be developed and utilized to justify the efficacy of nuclear medicine in guiding patient treatment and the development of new technologies and pharmaceuticals.
Dozens of researchers did their part by presenting research on major developments in the detection and treatment of life-threatening diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, prostate cancer, and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
In addition, other notable presentations showed how pediatric PET/CT imaging times can be reduced by 30% for many patients without a loss of diagnostic utility, and how molecular breast imaging techniques could potentially carve out a role in screening, if dose can be reduced to levels similar to those of mammography.
The annual SNM Image of the Year for 2010 was awarded to researchers at Hokko Memorial Hospital in Sapporo, Japan, who fused images of MDCT and technetium-99m sestamibi SPECT to provide information regarding detailed anatomical localization, angiography, and metabolism of an enlarged parathyroid gland.
And, of course, there are many challenges ahead for the SNM community. The global medical isotope shortage is "a lot worse" than it was a year ago, said former SNM president Robert Atcher, PhD, who chided the Canadian government for not delivering on promises to supply North America with molybdenum-99.
In the coming days and weeks, stay in touch with the Molecular Imaging Digital Community as we report on more research from the SNM annual meeting and follow other issues at the forefront of nuclear and molecular imaging.
