In a ceremony attended by the CEO of Hadassah, Prof. Zeev Rotstein, the Chairman of S.R.Y., Avi Balashnikov, senior figures from the Israeli healthcare system, and representatives from the Israeli Association of Nuclear Medicine, new production rooms of S.R.Y. (Medical Services) were inaugurated at the Hadassah Ein Karem campus.

S.R.Y. is a subsidiary of Hadassah Ein Karem hospital. The company specializes in developing and producing radiopharmaceuticals, and it is the only company in Israel that has clean rooms and cyclotron facilities (particle accelerators) with eight automatic modules for synthesizing different kinds of radioisotopes (cyclotron products).

Building the new production rooms took about four years. It included the construction of clean rooms and modern systems for manufacturing radiopharmaceuticals in a fully automated process, while meeting the strictest standards of the Israeli Ministry of Health, as well as those of European and American (FDA) authorities. These standards ensure the highest safety for patients.

The new production rooms cost about 13 million shekels. S.R.Y.’s products are supplied for PET scans both to Hadassah Ein Karem hospital and to several hospitals throughout the country, including Assuta, Beilinson, Sheba, Ichilov, and Shaare Zedek.

The cyclotron facilities are located about four floors underground, in rooms with concrete walls that are 2.5 meters thick. This is essential for environmental safety. It should be noted that S.R.Y. is the only company in Israel with two cyclotron facilities that can operate at the same time, providing backup if one is under maintenance.

Prof. Eyal Mishani, CEO of S.R.Y. and a pioneer in Israel in the field of cyclotrons, who also serves as a senior advisor to the International Atomic Energy Agency, said that the new facility includes state-of-the-art production rooms built to the highest standards available in Israel, which meet the strict global standards of both European and American (FDA) regulations – the highest possible level for patient safety.

Prof. Zeev Rotstein praised Prof. Mishani’s work and noted that patient safety is one of the most important issues to focus on in modern medicine. He added that the new production facility will make this possible in practice for thousands of patients every year at Hadassah and in other hospitals that need radiopharmaceutical products.

Avi Balashnikov, Chairman of S.R.Y. and former Chairman of Hadassah hospitals, said he welcomes the recent decision of the Ministry of Health to advance strict regulations for radiopharmaceuticals in Israel. He expects that, for this issue that is critical to patient health, there will be uncompromising enforcement against those who act without oversight and do not follow strict safety rules.

At the ceremony, Dr. Zvi Bar Sever, Chairman of the Israeli Association of Nuclear Medicine, said that S.R.Y’s new production rooms are of the highest standard and serve as an example for quality in allmatters of work procedures, quality improvement and quality control.

Original publication: Jerusalem Net: Hadassah Ein Kerem Campus: New production facility for medicines

הפוסט Hadassah Ein Karem Campus: Inauguration of a New Radiopharmaceutical Manufacturing Facility הופיע לראשונה ב-ש.ר.י.

The most advanced rooms in Israel for developing and producing radiopharmaceuticals were inaugurated at the Hadassah Ein Karem campus, after an investment of 13 million shekels. In a ceremony attended by Hadassah’s CEO, Prof. Zeev Rotstein, the chairman of S.R.Y., Avi Balashnikov, leading figures from the Israeli healthcare system, and representatives of the Israeli Association of Nuclear Medicine, the new production rooms of S.R.Y. (Medical Services) at the Hadassah Ein Karem campus were officially opened.

S.R.Y. is a subsidiary of Hadassah Ein Karem Hospital, specializing in the development and production of radiopharmaceuticals. It is the only company in Israel that owns clean rooms and cyclotron facilities (particle accelerators) that include eight automatic modules for synthesizing various types of isotopes (cyclotron products). Building the advanced production rooms took about four years and included clean rooms and modern systems for fully automated manufacturing of radiopharmaceuticals. The facilities meet the strictest standards of the Ministry of Health, as well as those of European authorities and the American FDA, ensuring the highest level of patient safety.

S.R.Y.’s products are supplied for PET scans to Hadassah Ein Karem Hospital and to a number of hospitals across Israel, including Assuta, Beilinson, Sheba, Ichilov, and Shaare Zedek.

The cyclotron facilities are located about four floors below ground, in rooms with concrete walls that are 2.5 meters thick, which is essential for environmental safety. It should be noted that S.R.Y. is the only company in Israel with two cyclotron facilities operating at the same time, providing backup in case one of the facilities is out for maintenance.

Prof. Eyal Mishani, CEO of S.R.Y. and a pioneer in the cyclotron field in Israel who also serves as a senior advisor to the International Atomic Energy Agency, said that the new facility includes the most advanced production rooms, built to the highest quality currently available in Israel. They meet the strict world standards of both European and American (FDA) regulations, which is the highest level for patient safety.

Prof. Zeev Rotstein praised Prof. Mishani’s work, noting that patient safety is one of the central and important issues to focus on today in modern medicine. He added that the new production facility will make this possible in practice for thousands of patients each year at Hadassah and in other hospitals that need radiopharmaceuticals.

Avi Balashnikov, chairman of S.R.Y. and former chairman of Hadassah hospitals, said that he welcomes the recent decision by the Ministry of Health to advance strict regulations in the field of radiopharmaceuticals in Israel. He expects that for this issue, which is critical to patient health, there will be uncompromising enforcement against those who operate without oversight and who do not follow strict safety conditions.

Dr. Zvi Bar Sever, chairman of the Israeli Association of Nuclear Medicine, said at the ceremony that S.R.Y.’s new production rooms are of the highest standard and serve as an example of quality in work procedures, quality improvement, and quality control.

Original publication: https://www.kolhair.co.il/health/14061/

הפוסט Ein Karem Campus: New Drug Development Rooms Inaugurated הופיע לראשונה ב-ש.ר.י.

The soundtrack, four floors underground in the basement of the nuclear medicine department at Hadassah Ein Karem Hospital, is one I know from thousands of hours of sci-fi shows and movies. It’s like being on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise. No noise from the world above makes it down here; all you hear is mechanical beeps and digital rings — blip-blip, gling-gling, and of course, toot-toot, eee-eee, trrrr, and above all a thin layer of continuous hissing.

Here, between 2.5-meter-thick walls, with cooling and air systems sealed off from the rest of the hospital, reside two particle accelerators — cyclotrons. One is old, about twenty years, and one newer, about seven years old. They look the same. Each has its own bunker, its own control and monitoring room, cooling room, maintenance, and electronics. On the way there, we pass through these spaces, and I’m thoroughly enjoying the charming contrast between high-tech and a delightful mess: piles of scattered papers, crates, devices, bottles, and a cozy coffee corner leading to a maintenance room filled with saws, hammers, screwdrivers, and tools I did not expect in a particle accelerator. Very Israeli. The control rooms are filled with dials and instruments, some running forward, some backward.

We enter the inner sanctum. The accelerator dominates most of a small room, with thousands of colorful tubes entering and exiting. It looks like the forbidden lovechild of a spaceship and a pressure cooker. Just over $2 million apiece. It even looks a bit alive. I can’t decide if I expected more or less — but either way, I’m happy. Every time I touch something, someone yells at me: “Don’t touch!” Then someone comes through with the Geiger counter, which beeps happily. All is well, they reassure, nothing dangerous. So, every time they’re not looking, I touch.

Inside the accelerator is a vacuum, like space, created by four diffusion pumps reaching a pressure of 10 to the power of minus 7 atmospheres. So, explain to me what’s happening here, I ask Prof. Eyal Mishani, head of the cyclotron unit. “To create a nuclear reaction,” he replies, “we take charged particles, accelerate them in electric and magnetic fields, and then bombard other, stable materials.”

Sure. Now, slower, please.

“First, you create a charged particle. In our case, you take hydrogen gas, feed it inside, and put it through a high electric field. This breaks it up and creates plasma. Plasma is chaos. Out of this, with another electric field, I extract a different particle that, because it has mass and electrical charge, begins to spiral in the electric and magnetic field, gaining speed and energy each revolution until it reaches 18 mega electron-volts. Then, I shoot it out of the field into the target, where it’s bombarded with high-energy protons, creating a new element called F18 – that’s the radioactivity.”

“Picture that, inside this crazy vacuum, there’s no collisions, so I can focus a beam to millimeters,” Mishani continues. “We cool the whole process with helium to minus 180 degrees Celsius. What comes out — a radioactive solution — I send through thin pipes to the lab, where the radioactivity is first separated from the water and then loaded onto the smart molecule.”

“This Is True for Many Diseases”

Mishani, 54, notices that while my body made it down here, my mind hasn’t caught up.
“Let’s say you have a military hangar in Syria,” he illustrates. “You send a plane to photograph it from above and now you know everything about its configuration, location, shape, fences, etc. But you have no idea what’s inside — tanks, planes, rockets. That’s basically anatomical imaging, like X-ray, CT, ultrasound, or MRI. But that’s not enough, right?”

Of course not.

“The world is moving towards personalized, targeted medicine, which demands much more complex and clever solutions. For that, you need information. How do you get it? There’s an invasive way — surgery, biopsy, pathology — which is great, but has issues: it takes time, it’s painful, and samples must be taken from different regions. Then, there’s another way — molecular imaging.”

“If I continue the analogy,” he says, “instead of sending a plane, I send in special elite unit who go inside and report exactly what’s happening. That’s molecular imaging — it lets you see things at the cellular level. How? We inject a radioactive material — a smart compound. A guided missile. It enters the bloodstream and targets specific elements of the tumor. These materials we manufacture here, in the accelerator. I’m essentially launching into a part or tissue of the human body a spyware, which constantly sends back signals. The smart material knows where to go, the radioactive isotope knows what to do when it gets there.”

Unlike in anatomical imaging, with such type of imaging (PET-CT) you can diagnose, with high accuracy, for instance, the presence of a unique type of lung cancer, which is found in only 20% of lung cancer patients. So instead of blitzing the whole body, you can load radioactive isotopes onto smart compounds, which can be injected to the bloodstream. “The isotope sends us signals, and as it accumulates in the vicinity of the tumor, we know whether the molecular element we wish to hit/treat is there or not,” Mishani says. “And this works for many diseases. For example, understanding brain processes, like in Alzheimer’s disease, where beta-amyloid plaques accumulate. There are compounds capable of finding these plaques long before symptoms start. It’s very good for early diagnosis, even if there is no cure yet – and we manufacture these compounds here.”

If you’ve found a tumor, why just send signals and not blow it up?

“If there are neuroendocrine tumors (see glossary), we treat with a compound that reaches and destroys them. That’s the direction, but it’s important — it won’t replace biopsies nor other treatments.”

And in the future?

“As with everything, it will be a combination of tools — one of modern medicine’s tools, for more efficient targeting and monitoring treatments. Another advantage of this imaging – it allows earlier monitoring of treatment efficacy that CT or ultrasound do. If you administer a biological drug to kill a tumor, with CT you’ll see a result only when the mass disappears – that may take four months. Here, you can see it immediately. But it’s complex, difficult, expensive, and not simple.”

How about dangerous?

“We administer the compounds in minute masses. Actually, these materials have no mass, only an electric charge. So, no toxicity problems. The radiation is very specific and we know how to read it. These are unique materials; many don’t last long — they have a short half-life. Some last two minutes or less; the longest half-life we have here is 110 minutes. That means you can’t import or store it — you must manufacture on a daily basis.”

The Difference Between a Reactor and an Accelerator

We stand in front of the accelerator, running now at 515 milli-amps, with internal pressure at 31 bar, and protons bombarding at 75 micro-amps. “Today, we produced 5.5 Curie, which is a lot,” says Mishani. He produces radioactive materials that are similar to glucose and highly accumulate in the brain, bladder, and tumors. The compound is injected, tracked by imaging until it reaches the cancer cells, enabling diagnosis and treatment.

The cyclotron uses magnetic and electric fields to produce nuclear materials for research and medicine using PET imaging. It was invented in the 1930s, made of two half-cylinders in a D-shape, with an electric field between them accelerating charged particles in a circular path (owing to the magnetic field).

The accelerator keeps doing its thing, but what amuses me is to discover that everything is tied with zip-ties – nuclear medicine from the future, but still held together by a zip-tie. In the corner, two trash cans — one for regular waste, one radioactive. I hope there’s no mix-up. “Before opening the cyclotron,” a big sign warns, “don’t forget to turn off the air conditioner.”

Why are we so deep underground and behind such thick walls? Can this thing explode?

“No. The beauty of a cyclotron, and what makes it different from a nuclear reactor, is that when you turn it off — there’s nothing. In Canada, they have accelerators inside shopping malls.”

So how does it work on day-to-day basis? Do you get department calls saying, “We have a 48-year-old male with an abdominal issue”?

“First, hospitals order daily compounds, and we plan our productions according to needs. There are several types of compounds; some require routine production, while others are rarer and thus supplied under special demand. Each indication employs a different compound for imaging. For example, imaging prostate cancer, which is very common, requires a specific compound. The point of imaging is: cancer cells need more energy and use more glucose; they have an enhanced metabolism. We trick the cell, expose it to the compound, and the cancerous cells light up. That’s our blockbuster. We manufacture huge amounts here.”

How much is “huge”?

“In total, it comes out to hundreds of doses.”

Is that a lot? In liters?

“Funny… We grew up in a world where you measure everything: meter, liter, kilo, gram. But these materials — they have almost no mass. 0.00000001 grams. What they do have is radioactivity – measured in milliCurie. Such few molecules, you can’t weigh nor see. We dilute them in saline or other fluid.”

I keep trying to nudge Mishani into discussing radioactive poisons for spies, but he doesn’t take the bait. “Even Marie Curie, who discovered radioactivity, took it straight to medicine, for good things. That’s our route, too – using nuclear energy for peace, health, and science. Nothing else.”

Aside from running the cyclotron, Mishani manages R&D, is CEO of the research fund, CEO of S.R.Y., a Hadassah subsidiary handling the financial side of R&D and production. He’s a professor of radiochemistry and molecular imaging, full faculty at Hebrew University’s medical school, and since 2012 an expert consultant for the medical arm of the International Atomic Energy Agency – which sends him around the world for inspecting cyclotrons. That’s how, for example, he befriended the Princess of Thailand, who became a close friend.

If a jar of radioactive material spills here, will we all die?

“No.”

How many people are treated with such compounds?

“Hundreds each day, and growing rapidly.”

More and More Black Spots

We move to the “cold” research lab. No radiation, no beeping here. This is where the biological missiles that carry radioactive warheads are prepped. Here too, a special kind of charming chaos reigns – like lighting from an old TV show about mad scientists. Still, control software monitors radiation constantly, and doors open and close all the time.

Then it’s on to another lab, with various small cells inside which robots receive pipes of radioactive solution, filter it, and run more processes. It’s beautiful. Even though Mishani’s been doing this over twenty years (since 1997 at Hadassah), he’s still excited. In the research lab everything is robotic, clad in heavy lead.

From here we reach the gleaming new production area, inaugurated just two months ago, meeting the strictest standards. Four years and about 13 million shekels were invested in building these rooms — and it shows. This is a whole other story; if until now we only put on shoe covers, here we’re covered head to toe, passing through doors that open before and close behind us. On the left, the “short-lived room,” on the right, the “long-lived room” – sounds like a joke about God or something, but it refers to the half-lives of radioactive materials.

Here, they separate the water, purify and collect the material, purify again, bottle it, pass it through a product chamber, put it in a small “lead fortress” that looks light as a Tiffin box but weighs over twenty kilograms. That gets put in an even bigger lead box, then sent out to customers: Assuta, Beilinson, Sheba, Ichilov, Shaare Zedek. Here you really feel the future, and the proof positive: no zip-ties here. Everything is impressive, all glass and lead.

After seeing how it’s made, we move to the nuclear medicine department- to see what’s done with it. Until now we’ve been in the realm of science, now we’re in medicine, with real people waiting after getting injected with the compounds we’ve just seen made. We’re brought to the new scanner, the first of its kind at Hadassah and in Israel — the digital PET-CT. Spectacular, this machine offers such high resolution that you can spot tumors as small as two or three millimeters – a 70% improvement in resolution, 90% in sensitivity. Also, you can inject the patient with less radioactive material, and they need to stay in the device for half the time, exposed to less than half the radiation.

The arrival of the machine was accompanied by a minor scandal, when the Health Ministry had to step in to release it from customs, since it arrived before the installation permit was issued. But now it’s here and working. As I marvel at the new machine — there’s nothing like a new gadget – I notice there’s a patient inside. I don’t see his face, not exposed to his name, of course, but I see the imaging. It’s an incredible, truly three-dimensional view of the human body. Several black spots: brain, kidneys, bladder – where the glucose accumulates.

Then I see more and more black spots. These are metastases, cancerous growths spread throughout the body. Suddenly, it’s deeply depressing, thinking about the man in the machine whose face and name I don’t know. They show me more and more tumors of various types. Let me tell you, my friends, there are better ways to spend an hour. Eventually it gets quite grim, and we return to the surface.

Glossary | Guide

Isotope: A variant of an element, differing in neutron number and thus in mass. An isotope with too few neutrons is unstable and becomes radioactive.

Molecule: A structure built from several atoms connected by chemical bonds. Molecules usually have no electric charge; if they do, they’re called ions.

Neuroendocrine Tumors: Tumors that develop in neuroendocrine cells scattered throughout the body, and can produce hormones.

Curie (Ci): A unit of radioactivity named after Pierre and Marie Curie, discoverers of radium.

Nuclear Medicine: A field using radioactive atoms and ionizing radiation for research, imaging, diagnosis, and therapy. The radioactive atoms must emit enough radiation and have an appropriate half-life for imaging, yet without causing harm.

Half-life: Reflects an isotope’s stability; the time required for half of the atoms to decay. Can range betweeb fractions of a second to billions of years.

PET-CT: A test combining CT (using X-rays for anatomical results) and PET (which maps function via injection and tracking of a radioactive compound). Mostly used for diagnosing tumors.

Original article: Globes – Journey to the Belly of the Earth: The Fortified Particle Accelerator Fighting Cancer

הפוסט Journey to the Core of the Earth: The Fortified Particle Accelerator Fighting Cancer הופיע לראשונה ב-ש.ר.י.

Since its introduction in 2011, ⁶⁸Ga-PSMA-11 has been commonly used for PSMA-targeted imaging, mostly in Europe and Asia, and has revolutionized the field of PC imaging and treatment. ⁶⁸Ga-PSMA-11 accumulates in PC lesions while clearing from non-target tissues, resulting in high diagnostic sensitivity and ability to diagnose metastases, including in small lymph nodes. Nonetheless, ⁶⁸Ga-PSMA-11 has several drawbacks, namely:

• Renal excretion, leading to high activity in the bladder, which might obscure locally recurrent lesions.
• A relatively short half-life, which limits its distribution to distant centers.
• Reliance on third parties for supply of generators.
• Limited yields, allowing production of ~4 doses per batch.
• Relatively lower spatial resolution images of gallium-68 compared to fluorine-18

As of 2017, the availability and price of ⁶⁸Ge/⁶⁸Ga generators have been challenging. At the same time, a novel fluorine-18 labeled PSMA ligand, ¹⁸F-PSMA-1007, was launched, and has since been widely adopted by nuclear medicine and urology physicians. This PET ligand offers several advantages compared to ⁶⁸Ga-PSMA-11, including:

• Mostly hepatobiliary clearance, resulting in low accumulation in the bladder and improved visualization of lesions within and around the prostatic bed.
• Higher spatial resolution images owing to the use of fluorine-18 rather than gallium-68.
• Cyclotron-mediated production of fluorine-18, enabling high yields without relying on third parties
• Distribution of the radiopharmaceutical to distant centers owing to the longer half-life of fluorine-18 (~ 110 min).

In light of these significant advantages, as of 2017, S.R.Y. has initiated a routine production line of ¹⁸F-PSMA-1007.

הפוסט Launch of New ¹⁸F-PSMA-1007 Production Line הופיע לראשונה ב-ש.ר.י.

For the first time in Israel: A simple, non-invasive brain imaging test will identify the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. The test can detect the protein associated with the risk of developing the disease and therefore may help diagnose it in advance, or in its early stages – something that has not been possible until now.

The test is primarily relevant for those with a family history of the disease or who suspect its presence, and it can help tailor treatment to prevent and slow its progression.

It is recommended for people aged 45 and above, but can be performed at any age. Today, the test is available in some Western European countries, and now for the first time in Israel, it is being performed at Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem. Several individual tests have already been conducted so far.

Prof. Eyal Mishani, Head of Research and Development Division at Hadassah Medical Center, explained: “The imaging is done by injection of a radioactive material that is safe, followed by a brain scan using a PET CT machine. This allows us to identify the amount of protein that if present, indicates the development of Alzheimer’s. Understanding the relation between this protein and the disease can also help develop drugs to stop Alzheimer’s.”

Dr. Dana Ekstein, Head of the Neurology Department, emphasizes that the test is recommended after consultation with a neurologist, who based on the test results can recommend tailored treatment that may delay disease progression. It is possible to assess whether the dementia originates from Alzheimer’s disease or is due to another condition.

Original article: https://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-5563190,00.html

הפוסט First in Israel: Test to Identify Risk of Developing Alzheimer’s Disease הופיע לראשונה ב-ש.ר.י.

A new medical test that could help doctors prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s disease – and discover new and better treatments for it – is now being conducted in Israel.

Hadassah Ein Kerem announced that it’s SRY subsidiary has contracted with General Electric (GE) to be the sole producer of Vizamyl, a radioactive diagnostic agent indicated for Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging of the brain. It estimates -amyloid neuritic plaque density in adult patients with cognitive impairment, who are being evaluated for Alzheimer’s disease or other causes of cognitive decline.

“If you don’t see any deposit in the brain, you are OK,” explained Dr. Eyal Mishani of the Nuclear Medicine Institute at Hadassah Medical Center. “If you do see some, then you are at risk. You can change your way of living to suspend or prevent [the onset of Alzheimer’s] or help mitigate the progression of the disease.”

He said that one can eat different foods, and do certain exercises or other types of training to suspend the progression of the disease.

The technology was tested during a series of clinical trials at Sheba Medical Center. Since announcing the production of the compound and bringing the test to Hadassah, a handful of tests have been conducted. Mishani is confident that it will eventually be used regularly. He also said that Hadassah will provide the compound to other medical centers interested in conducting the PET-CT examination.

Hadassah has a six-year contract to exclusively produce and market the compound.
Another benefit of the test is that it can be used to test people with early onset of Alzheimer’s undergoing clinical trials, which can then be compared to a second scan conducted at the conclusion of treatment.

“This will help us evaluate these treatments,” Mishani said.

The PET-CT examination will not be covered by the Health Ministry’s Services Basket but rather by private payment.

Original article: https://www.jpost.com/HEALTH-SCIENCE/New-non-invasive-brain-test-could-help-prevent-stymie-Alzheimers-597620

הפוסט Hadassah rolls out non-invasive brain test to help prevent Alzheimer’s en הופיע לראשונה ב-ש.ר.י.

As part of our core values, we have committed ourselves to delivering a final product that is effective, safe to use, and of the highest quality. This means that the end user, whether a patient, a treating physician, or a medical center, can rely on our product with a high level of confidence.

Production is carried out in an isolator (Grade A), located within clean rooms built with an investment of 13 million NIS. The entire process has been adapted and optimized to meet the highest quality and safety requirements.

GMP – Good Manufacturing Practice is part of the quality system that oversees manufacturing in the pharmaceutical, medical device, food, and cosmetics industries. GMP guidelines define the principles of manufacturing, quality control, and quality assurance, all of which directly impact the quality of the final product.

Since every stage of the process can potentially influence the quality, efficacy, and safety of the final product, GMP standards and guidelines cover all stages: from selection and qualification of raw material suppliers, through manufacturing and quality control processes, to storage and distribution of the final product, which successfully met its release criteria.

The certification confirms that the company has a high-level quality assurance system, proper infrastructure, and that all manufacturing conditions and related processes are appropriate, controlled, and meet the regulator’s strictest requirements.

GMP is a global standard implemented in many countries worldwide. While each country may establish its own GMP procedures, the basic principles remain the same, aiming to ensure the quality of medical products and to protect consumers’ health and safety.

In Israel, the certification is issued by the Institute of Pharmaceutical Standards and Quality Control of the Ministry of Health, which inspects the company’s quality system, infrastructure and manufacturing processes for compliance with international GMP guidelines (using the GMP guide of the PIC/S – Pharmaceutical Co-operation Inspection Scheme as a reference). This certification is recognized by the European Union authorities and by additional countries.

הפוסט S.R.Y. Is Granted GMP Certification הופיע לראשונה ב-ש.ר.י.

^a Pauwels E., et al. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2020; 47: 3033, ^b Hou J., et al.  EJNMMI Res. 2021; 11: 55

Key Advantages:

• Improved spatial resolution images of fluorine-18 labeled ligands compared to those labeled with gallium-68
• Ideal half-life
• Distribution to distant centers
• High production yields
• Comparable performance to that of ⁶⁸Ga-DOTA-TATE

הפוסט ¹⁸F-NOTA-TIDE: Somatostatin analog, labeled with fluorine-18 הופיע לראשונה ב-ש.ר.י.

Numerous recent publications indicate that fluorine-18 labeledmeta-fluorobenzylguanidine ([¹⁸F]mFBG), a structural analog of mIBG, stands out as an attractive alternative to [¹²³I]mIBG for PET imaging of hNET-expressing tumors^2-8.

Chemical structures of [¹⁸F]mFBG and [¹²³I]mIBG

 Advantages of [¹⁸F]mFBG vs. [¹²³I]mIBG:

• Higher resolution of PET vs. SPECT resulting in improved detection of small lesions
• Higher clearance² enabling acquisition at earlier time after injection and a potentially lower radiation dose to patients^2,9
• Thyroid blockade with saturated iodine is not required
• Shorter acquisition time
• Single-day protocol

1. Pandit-Taskar N., et al. J Nucl Med. 2017; 58: 39S
2. Pandit-Taskar N., et al. J Nucl Med. 2018; 59: 147
3. Pauwels E., et al. Q J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2020; 64: 234
4. Pauwels E., et al. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2021; 48: 313
5. Pauwels E., et al. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2023; 50: 1134
6. Samim A., et al. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2023; 50: 1146
7. Wang P., et al. Clin Nucl Med. 2023; 48: 43
8. Wang P., et al. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2023; 50: 3097
9. Bombardieri E., et al. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2010; 37: 2436

הפוסט PET ¹⁸F-mFBG imaging of hNET-expressing neural crest tumors הופיע לראשונה ב-ש.ר.י.