News

Pre-Congress Symposium at the EANM Annual Congress on 12 October 2019 in Barcelona, Spain

The project

In recent years, radiopharmaceuticals have been increasingly used in the treatment of cancer. However, a well-known problem in the nuclear medicine community is the difficulty with measuring the absorbed radiation dose that is delivered into a patient’s critical body tissues during their treatment. EURAMET projects have worked to develop these very measurement capabilities for absorbed dose, providing the means to plan individual doses for complex treatments and accurately assess treatment effectiveness.

A previous EMRP project (HLT11, MetroMRT) took the first steps in developing the dosimetry required to underpin successful molecular radiotherapy, and this succeeding EMPIR project ‘Metrology for clinical implementation of dosimetry in molecular radiotherapy’ (15HLT06, MRTDosimetry) has been building on previous work with a renewed focus on the clinical implementation of absorbed dose calculations. With greater involvement of nuclear medicine clinics, the project has developed standardised methods, robust protocols and validated existing dosimetry – bringing significant improvements to patient outcomes.

The Pre-Congress Symposium

Several key results of the project have been disseminated to national nuclear medicine organisations, such as the European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM). In particular, the project’s practical guidance on uncertainty analysis for molecular radiotherapy dosimetry has been adopted and published by the EANM.

On 12 October, the consortium had the opportunity to present important protocols developed during the project at a pre-congress symposium scheduled by the EANM, as part of its 2019 Annual Congress - the world’s leading nuclear medicine meeting. This particular symposium aimed to provide guidance on how to perform dosimetry in clinical practice and in multicentre trials.

Two outcomes of the EMPIR project were selected for the session; the new calibration protocols that have been used to perform a multi-site comparison of quantitative imaging, and the recent improvements to the accuracy and traceability of absorbed dose calculations.

As a guest speaker for the symposium, project coordinator Andrew Robinson says,

“The EANM’s ongoing engagement with the ‘MRTDosimetry’ project provides a valuable pathway for adoption of the project results and to deliver clinical impact from our work.”

The completed EMPIR project continues to take part in similar events to ensure the widespread adoption of their results into routine clinical treatments.

This EMPIR project is co-funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and the EMPIR Participating States.

Want to hear more about EURAMET?
Sign up for EURAMET newsletters and other information

Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter