The positron emission tomography core laboratory of the American College of Radiology Clinical Research Center plays a major part in ensuring that PET images and image data used in multicenter clinical trial research meet acceptable standards, according to a recent article in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.
This finding was determined after a review of the American College of Radiology Imaging Network PET scanner qualification program and reported by the PET core laboratory team of physicists, nuclear medicine physicians and technologists who support the program.
“Information obtained from PET imaging has increasingly demonstrated its promising role as a non-invasive biomarker for assessing disease status,” stated lead author Joshua Scheuermann, MS, a clinical physicist at the University of Pennsylvania, in the paper published online June 12.
The authors looked at data on the qualification of 101 PET scanners that possessed complete qualification data. The team reported that of the 101 scanners to apply for PET qualification from June 2005 through June 2008, 36 sites passed the qualification review with no intervention, 57 sites passed with some type of intervention and eight sites failed.
The PET core laboratory is a component of the Diagnostic Imaging and Radiation Oncology Core Laboratory of the ACR’s Clinical Research Center located in Philadelphia.