International conference on clinical PET and molecular nuclear medicine (IPET 2007). Book of abstracts

The International Atomic Energy Agency is organizing its first international conference on 'Clinical PET and Molecular Nuclear Medicine'. Medical imaging technologies have undergone explosive growth over the past two decades. Today, imaging is at a crossroad, with molecular targeted imaging agents expected to broadly expand the capabilities of conventional anatomical imaging methods. Observing molecular interactions in the living body by the radiotracer technique has become known as 'molecular nuclear medicine'. Molecular nuclear medicine techniques analyze cellular biochemistry and its relationship to disease processes expressed in tissue and organ dysfunction, for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. People can often have similar manifestations of disease, but no two patients will be the same. Functional radionuclide imaging and positron emission tomography (PET) provide excellent opportunities to follow the pathology in individual patients and therefore provide a means for tailored clinical management. These also provide the means to assess the response to treatment in a safe and non-invasive manner. Changes at molecular and cellular levels provide vital clues for evaluating the effectiveness of chosen clinical treatment plans. This information is expected to have a major impact on understanding disease, disease detection, individualised treatment, and drug development. Recently, considerable attention has been drawn to nuclear medicine with the visualization of biochemical processes in vivo such as PET studies with 18F-FDG in many different organs and in cancerous tissues. With the arrival of PET/CT systems there is a new era of accurate mapping of disease processes. Today, 18F-FDG is the most useful PET tracer for the detection, staging, treatment planning and management of cancer. There is mounting evidence for its competitive advantage over conventional techniques in major medical areas including oncology, cardiology, and neurology. Nuclear medicine is unique among all diagnostic and therapeutic procedures because nuclear medicine techniques are increasingly based on molecular targeting. Molecular nuclear medicine and radiopharmacology are central to the growth of nuclear medicine. The targeting models include the receptor-ligand model, antigen-antibody model, transporter-substrate model (FDG and Glut-1 transporter), enzyme-substrate model and complex or hybrid models. Numerous developments in these areas e.g. antisense targeting, mutation detection, aptamers, tumour antigens, tumour receptors, tumour metabolism, tumour hypoxia, tumour proliferation, apoptosis, angiogenesis, neuroreceptors and neurotransmitters, abnormal proteins in brain, response to infection, multiple drug resistance, reporter genes - all employing radioactive labels and being specific to a disease - provide strategic advantages. There is a very significant growth in the installation of cyclotrons and with a few exceptions, these new cyclotrons cater for the production of radionuclides for medical application. Research into other 18F labelled molecules including peptides and agents for tracking gene therapy has resulted in new radiopharmaceuticals such as 18F-FLT, 18F-FET etc. The quest for newer and more specific 18F labelled radiopharmaceuticals keeps PET chemists busy all over the world. Other short-lived PET radionuclides such as 11C, 13N and 15O, despite the logistical disadvantage of their short half lives, are increasingly used in neurology and in new pharmaceutical developments. The short half life of most of these radioisotopes makes it essential that the process is automated from irradiation to the dispensing stage so that the final radiopharmaceuticals are in compliance with the approved guidelines of Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP). There is a need to evolve appropriate guidelines for short shelf life radiopharmaceuticals. The conference will cover developments in the entire spectrum of activities related to molecular imaging. This conference will have the following objectives: - To evaluate the current status of clinical PE T, molecular nuclear medicine and related radiopharmacology globally; - To reflect on challenges of establishing PET in emerging countries; - To deliver supporting 'know how' via CME (Continuing Medical Education) programmes in the field of rapidly growing molecular imaging; - To interact with the user group (physicians, radiologists, radiopharmacists, radiochemists, medical physicists, pharmacologists and other scientists working in all aspects of molecular nuclear medicine) and bring them the most important information in the field; - To exchange information on the current advances in the field among leading clinical scientists from developed and developing countries; - To identify future challenges and directions