SPECIAL ARTICLE  THERAGNOSTICS APPLICATIONS AND CHALLENGES 

The Quarterly Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging 2021 December;65(4):327-32

DOI: 10.23736/S1824-4785.21.03418-X

Copyright © 2021 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Dosimetry of nuclear medicine therapies: current controversies and impact on treatment optimization

Francesco CICONE ^{1, 2, 3} ✉, Silvano GNESIN ⁴, Marta CREMONESI ⁵

¹ PET/RM Unit, Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, and Neuroscience Research Center, Magna Graecia University of Catanzaro, Catanzaro, Italy; ² Unit of Nuclear Medicine, Mater Domini University Hospital, Catanzaro, Italy; ³ University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland; ⁴ Institute of Radiation Physics, Lausanne University Hospital, Lausanne, Switzerland; ⁵ Unit of Radiation Research, Department of Medical Imaging and Radiation Sciences, IRCCS European Institute of Oncology, Milan, Italy

Nuclear medicine therapeutic procedures have considerably expanded over the last few years, and their number is expected to grow exponentially in the future. Internal dosimetry has significantly developed as well, but has not yet been uniformly accepted as a valuable tool for prediction of therapeutic efficacy and toxicity. In this paper, we briefly summarize some of the arguments about the implementation of internal dosimetry in clinical practice. In addition, we provide a few examples of radionuclide anticancer therapies for which internal dosimetry demonstrated a significant impact on treatment optimization and patient outcome.

KEY WORDS: Radiopharmaceuticals; Radiobiology; Therapeutics