News
INITIO updates and comments on new studies
PET reveals visual brain pattern of long COVID
A PET study in 143 individuals has identified the metabolic fingerprint of long COVID in the brain, involving decreased activity in the olfactory and limbic areas, and the pons and cerebellum.
PET predicts long term response after CAR-T treatment for lymphoma
In the study of CAR-T with lymphoma, researchers are discovering that PET scans with FDG (a modified sugar molecule) predict long term response to CAR-T therapy. For patients who are not responding, this gives doctors time to switch to other treatment regimens without having to wait.
FDG and NaF PET/CT Predictive for Overall Survival in Genitourinary Malignancies
…The second generation Discovery PET/CT scanner at INITIO includes the ability to calculate the metabolic volume of a tumor, and we routinely report these emerging biomarkers to our referring physicians….
PET tracer may improve understanding of Alzheimer’s Disease
This new PET tracer compound, SMBT-1, focuses on astrocytes, which are the most abundant cell type in the brain, even more abundant than neurons. The tracer is able to selectively detect activated astrocytes, which may be a marker of undesirable brain inflammation which precedes cognitive deterioration.
‘Next big wave’: Radiation drugs track and kill cancer cells
Dr. Rob’s comment: Targeted radiotherapy is the process of making a drug that can lock onto a cancer cell, and then adding a radioactive atom to that drug. After we inject the material, it locks onto cancer cells, and highly targeted radioactive emissions kill the cancer cells, while sparing healthy tissue. This treatment, which has been available in Europe, Australia and the US, is now coming to clinical trials in Canada, and INITIO is excited to participate in these trials, currently in planning stages for prostate cancer, and slated to begin later this summer.
PET shows potential at detecting neuroedocrine cancer
A new PET tracer, uPAR, is able to detect the functional activity of these tumours, allowing them to be more easily diagnosed and therefore referred for better treatment earlier. It can also aid physicians in determining who is at greater risk of disease progression.
