Florbetapir, PET/MR and Other Nuclear Medicine Highlights
In honor of Nuclear Medicine Week, the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging highlights four major advancements in the field.
It’s Nuclear Medicine Week, which means it’s a good time to reflect on some major advances in the field this year.
The Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging and the SNMMI Technologist Section compiled a list of four highlights:
• FDA’s approval of florbetapir for amyloid imaging
• The first results of PET/MR in clinical use
• Dose optimization efforts, including Image Gently’s guidelines for nuclear medicine
• Increased use of molecular breast imaging
Looking forward to next year, the society noted that appropriate use criteria for amyloid imaging will be released, and the FDA is expected to approve radium-223 for treatment of recurrent prostate cancer. “We are hopeful that several other radiotracers will be approved by the FDA in the coming year as well,” Frederic H. Fahey, DSc, SNMMI president, said in a statement. “In addition, SNMMI’s global initiative will also be well underway and a worldwide collaboration will be in place to advance the field.”
What are some other notable nuclear medicine moments from this year?
FDA Clears Virtually Helium-Free 1.5T MRI System from Siemens Healthineers
June 26th 2025Offering a cost- and resource-saving DryCool magnet technology, the Magnetom Flow.Ace MRI system reportedly requires 0.7 liters of liquid helium for cooling over the lifetime of the device in contrast to over 1,000 liters commonly utilized with conventional MRI platforms.
Multinational Study Reaffirms Value of Adjunctive AI for Prostate MRI
June 16th 2025The use of adjunctive AI in biparametric prostate MRI exams led to 3.3 percent and 3.4 percent increases in the AUC and specificity, respectively, for clinically significant prostate cancer (csPCa) in a 360-person cohort drawn from 53 facilities.
FDA Clears Enhanced MRI-Guided Laser Ablation System
June 5th 2025An alternative to an open neurosurgical approach, the Visualase V2 MRI-Guided Laser Ablation System reportedly utilizes laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT) for targeted soft tissue ablation in patients with brain tumors and focal epilepsy.
