The Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) has named Calif.-based Stanford Health Care and the Dana-Farber Brigham Cancer Center in Boston as its first two designated Radiopharmaceutical Therapy Centers of Excellence. The institutions are designated as comprehensive centers that administer multiple radiopharmaceutical therapies—such as those to treat thyroid cancer, prostate cancer, and neuroendocrine tumors—and actively engage in radiopharmaceutical therapy research.
SNMMI created the Radiopharmaceutical Therapy Center of Excellence program to certify sites that meet strict regulatory, training, qualification, experience, and performance criteria for radiopharmaceutical therapy. With the Radiopharmaceutical Therapy Centers of Excellence designation, institutions can assure patients, their families, referring physicians and payors that rigorous procedures are in place and followed, ultimately leading to appropriate patient selection and optimal outcomes from radiopharmaceutical therapy.
“We are honored to receive this designation in recognition of our decade-long investments in space, equipment, and personnel done to provide advanced theranostic care to our patients,” notes Andrei Iagaru, MD, chief of the division of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging at Stanford Health Care in California. “We want to thank all the SNMMI members and the worldwide nuclear medicine community, as well as its industry partners, for the significant advancements of science occurring at such a very fast pace.”
Heather Jacene, MD, clinical director of nuclear medicine/PET-CT at the Dana-Farber Brigham Cancer Center, expressed her pride in the designation as well. “The evolution of radiopharmaceutical therapy and theranostics at the Dana-Farber Brigham Cancer Center has been a journey of innovative, multidisciplinary, and compassionate care that is at the heart of the Cancer Center’s mission,” she says.
This designation by SNMMI is a wonderful recognition of our hard work, and we are excited to continue to advance the field in partnership with our medical colleagues, industry partners and researchers in the theranostics community,” Jacene adds.
Radiopharmaceutical therapies represent a growing sector in the field in which nuclear medicine professionals act as “nuclear oncologists” for patients, evaluating them, providing treatment options, and delivering therapy. With the FDA approval of the radiopharmaceutical therapies Lutathera and Xofigo and pending approval of new agents, such as 177Lu-PSMA-617, the demand for high-quality radiopharmaceutical therapy centers will only increase.
