For the second consecutive year, Vanderbilt University Medical Center has been designated a Comprehensive Radiopharmaceutical Therapy Center of Excellence by the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging. It remains the only center in Tennessee with the accolade.
The designation affirms that VUMC has been found to have the training, personnel, equipment and experience needed to manage patients requiring radiopharmaceutical therapy.
Radiopharmaceutical therapy is targeted delivery of radiation to cancer cells or to the tumor microenvironment using radiopharmaceuticals — agents that accumulate in a tumor because the radioactive element is involved in certain biological processes or is attached to a chemical that targets a tumor.
“We are grateful for the experience, expertise and enthusiasm shared by team members in helping our nuclear medicine therapy service to thrive and grow,” said Philip Scherer, MD, associate professor of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, section chief of Nuclear Medicine and director of Nuclear Medicine and Positron Emission Tomography at VUMC.
“To once again receive this distinction is a testament to the collaborative efforts of our fantastic nuclear medicine physicians, technologists, radiation safety officers, medical physicists, radiochemists, radiopharmacists and oncology physicians,” Scherer said.
Comprehensive Centers of Excellence are sites that are leading the field, according to the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging. These centers have experience administering multiple radiopharmaceutical therapies, established care teams in specific disease areas and active radiopharmaceutical research.
“Our department was an early adopter of Theranostics, as well as PET CT,” said Daniel Brown, MD, Carol D. and Henry P. Pendergrass Professor and chair of Radiology and Radiological Sciences. “The comprehensive radiopharmaceutical coverage available through Nuclear Medicine at VUMC is a strength of our department. I am grateful for the hard work our nuclear medicine faculty and their collaborators do to care for our patients.”
With 15,000 members worldwide, the society promotes the science, technology and practical applications of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging. To date, more than 30 comprehensive radiopharmaceutical centers of excellence have been designated in the United States and Canada.
