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Faculty in the Division of Nuclear Medicine
at Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology

Attending Physicians in the Nuclear Medicine Division

Other Academic Staff

Email addresses

 

This page last updated 10/26/06.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Richard Laforest, PhD

Assistant Professor
Department of Radiology

Research Programs

Clinical Nuclear Medicine
Positron Emission Tomography
Multi-Modality Small Animal Imaging

Education

Laval University, Quebec, Canada 1989 B.S. Physics
Laval University, Quebec, Canada 1991 M.S. Experimental Nuclear Physics
Laval University, Quebec, Canada 1994 Ph.D. Experimental Nuclear Physics

Selected Publications

Dosimetry of 60,61,62,62Cu-ATSM: A hypoxia Imaging agent for PET. R.Laforest, F.Dehdashti, J.S. Lewis, S.W. Schwarz, Eur. Jour. Nucl. Med. (2004)

Production, Processing, and MicroPET Imaging of Titanium-45, Amy L. Vâvere, Richard Laforest, Michael J. Welch, Nucl. Med. Biology, (2004).

Performance Evaluation of the microPET®-Focus™: a third generation microPET scanner dedicated to animal imaging, Yuan-Chuan. Tai, Ananya Ruangma, Douglas Rowland, Stefan Siegel, Danny F. Newport, Patrick L. Chow, Richard Laforest*, accepted in Jour. Nucl. Medicine, July 2004.

In Vivo Assessment of Tumor Hypoxia in Lung Cancer with 60Cu-ATSM, Farrokh Dehdashti, Mark A. Mintun, Jason S. Lewis, Jeffrey Bradley, Ramaswamy Govindan, Richard Laforest, Michael J. Welch, Barry A. Siegel, Jour. Nucl. Med. 30-6 (2003) 844-850.

Preparation of 66Ga- and 68Ga-labeled Ga(III)-Deferoxamine-Folate as Potential Folate-Receptor-Targeted PET Radiopharmaceuticals. Carla J. Mathias, Michael R. Lewis, David E. Reichert, Richard Laforest, Terry L. Sharp, Zhen-Fan Yang, David J. Waters, Paul W. Snyder, Philip S. Low, Michael J. Welch, and Mark A. Green , Nucl. Med. Biol. 30-7 (2003) 725-731

Delineation of Hypoxia in Canine Myocardium Using PET and Copper(II)-Diacetyl-bis(N4-Methylthiosemicarbazone), J. S. Lewis, P. Herrero, T.L. Sharp, J.A. Engelbach, Y. Fujibayashi, R. Laforest, A. Kovacs, R.J. Gropler, M.J. Welch, Jour. Nucl. Med. 43 (2002) 1557-1569.

Physiologic FDG-PET three-dimensional brachytherapy treatment planning for cervical cancer. Malyapa RS, Mutic S, Low DA, Zoberi I, Bosch WR, Laforest R, Miller TR, Grigsby PW. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2002 Nov 15;54(4):1140-6.

Production and purification of gallium-66 for preparation of tumor-targeting radiopharmaceuticals, Lewis MR, Reichert DE, Laforest R, Margenau WH, Shefer RE, Klinkowstein RE, Hughey BJ, Welch MJ. Nucl Med Biol. 2002 Aug;29(6):701-6.

PET-guided three-dimensional treatment planning of intracavitary gynecologic implants. Mutic S, Grigsby PW, Low DA, Dempsey JF, Harms WB, Laforest R, Bosch WR, Miller TR. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2002 Mar 15;52(4):1104-10.

Research interests

PET is a noninvasive imaging technique that allows measurement of the concentration of radiotracers in the body of a living subject. Recent technological advances in detector design have allowed the construction of higher resolution tomographs for imaging radiopharmaceuticals in small laboratory animals, thus opening new areas of research of the brain, tumors, preclinical evaluation of new radiopharmaceuticals as well as gene expression and gene therapy.

The coregistration of functional images and anatomical images from MRI or CT allows for precise localization of activity distribution within the body of a living animal. Anatomical information, in conjunction to PET, can also be used for organ or tumor size determination. Knowing the exact size of an organ or tumor allows correction of the measured activity concentration for partial volume effects and will be used to improve the radiation dosimetry calculation. This will be especially crucial with nonstandard isotopes where partial volume effects are larger.

In addition to the common positron emitting isotopes used in nuclear medicine such as C-11, N-13, and O-15 and F-18, this laboratory is involved in the production of nonconventional radionuclides for PET imaging. Some of these isotopes are characterized by a longer half-life, allowing longitudinal studies on the same animal with a single injection of radiopharmaceuticals. Radiopharmaceutical kinetics can, thus, be studied on the same animal by successful PET imaging over several hours or days. Unfortunately, non-tandard isotopes decay with the emission of a high-energy positron and emit other concurrent gamma rays. Higher energy positron will travel longer distances from the point of emission in matter before annihilating. This will reduce the imaging performance by degrading the spatial resolution. Also, the emission of concurrent gamma rays will strongly affect the counting ability of the imaging device. Evaluation of these isotopes is thus mandatory before accurate quantitation can be achieved, both in small animal and human PET cameras. Improvement of imaging techniques is being investigated.

PET is an important noninvasive imaging technique and has become an accepted clinical tool in nuclear medicine. In particular PET imaging with [F-18]-Fluoro-2-deoxyglucose [FDG] for staging and localization of malignant cancerous tumors is now routinely performed. Nonetheless, significant advances in camera design and image reconstruction algorithms have been achieved recently, and efforts are being made to improve the overall utility of PET imaging and to develop new applications, notably in the areas of radiation treatment planning and cardiology.

Address

510 Kingshighway South
Campus Box 8225
phone: (314)362-8423
fax: (314)362-5428
e - m a i l :
l a f o r e s t r
@                                                                             (To use, retype email without spaces or returns)
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Sally Wagner Schwarz, R.Ph., M.S.

Research Associate Professor in Radiology

Research Areas

Positron Emission Tomography (PET)
Nuclear Medicine

Education

University of Iowa B.S. 1971 Pharmacy
University of S. Calif., Los Angeles M.S. 1976 Radiopharmacy

Committee Appointments

Selected Publications

LaForest R, Dehdashti F, Lewis JS, Schwarz SW.  Dosimetry of 60/61/62/64Cu-ATSM:  a hypoxia imaging agent for PET. EJNM 2004.

Dence CS, Herrero P, Schwarz S, Mach R, Gropler, R., Welch M.  Imaging myocardium enzymatic pathways with Carbon-11 radiotracers. Methods in Enzymology, 2004.

Anderson CJ, Dehdashti F, Cutler PD, Schwarz SW, Laforest R, Bass LA, Lewis JS, McCarthy DW. Copper-64 TETA-Octreotide as a PET imaging agent for patients with neuroendocrine tumors. JNM 2000, 42:213-221.

Lewis JS, Lewis MR, Cutler PD, Srinivasan A, Schmidt MA, Schwarz SW, Morris MM, Miller MJ, Anderson CJ.  Radiotherapy and dosimetry of  64Cu-TETA-Tyr3-Octreotate in a Somatostatin Receptor-positive, Tumor-bearing Rat Model1.  Clin Can Research 1999;5:3608-3616

Connett JM, Anderson CJ, Li-Wu G, Schwarz SW, Zinn KR, Rogers BE, Siegel BA, Philpott GW, Welch MJ: Radioimmuniotherapy with a 64Cu-labeled monoclonal antibody: a comparison with 67Cu. Proc Natl Acad Sci 1996; 93:6814-6818.

Anderson CJ, Schwarz SW, Connett JM, Cutler D, Guo LW, Germain CJ, Philpott GW, Zinn KR, Greiner DP, Meares CF, Welch MJ: Preparation, biodistribution and dosimetry of copper-64-labeled anti-colorectal carcinoma monoclonal antibody (MAb) fragments 1A3-f(ab')2. J Nucl Med 1995; 36:850-858.

Philpott GW, Schwarz SW, Anderson CJ, Dehdashti FD, Connett JM, Zinn KR, Meares CF, Cutler PD, Welch MJ, Siegel BA: RadioimmunoPET: detection of colorectal carcinoma by positron emission tomography with a 64Cu-labeled monoclonal antibody. J Nucl Med 1995; 36:1818-1824.

Cutler PD, Schwarz SW, Anderson CJ, et al: Dosimetry of 64Cu-labeled monoclonal antibody 1A3 as determined by PET imaging of the torso. J Nucl Med 1995; 36:2363-2371.

Clinical and Research Areas

As Director of Clinical PET Radiopharmaceutical production I am involved in the production of PET radiopharmaceuticals for clinical and clinical research use.  The cyclotron facility is licensed as a PET Nuclear Pharmacy and a Drug Distributor.  The facility has 3 cyclotrons, and produces a variety of short-lived radiopharmaceuticals labeled with O-15, C-11, N-13, and F-18 ranging in half-life from 2 minutes for O-15 to 110 minutes for F-18. 

Clinical PET imaging is primarily performed for oncologic imaging utilizing F-18 fluoro-2-deoxyglucose (FDG), for diagnosis and staging of cancers such as breast, lung, and cervical.   Carbon-11 labeled acetate is also used in diagnosis of prostate cancer.  As the PET field has grown, the necessary oversight of the FDA has increased, mandating additional requirements for radiopharmaceutical standard operating procedures (SOP) and quality control (QC). The short-lived PET isotopes present a unique challenge for preparation and required pre-release QC.    

A significant number of clinical research PET radiopharmaceuticals are also prepared in the cyclotron facility, such as O-15 labeled water and oxygen (oxygen metabolism), F-18 fluorothymidine (cellular metabolism), F-18 fluorodopa (Parkinsonism), and  C-11 acetate, palmitate and glucose (cardiac metabolism).  These radiotracers are prepared under the authority of the FDA regulated Radioactive Drug Research Committee (RDRC) which reviews the scientific protocol submissions from physician investigators.  Chemistry files documenting production, validation and quality control process are prepared as part of the protocol submissions

Address

4424C Clinical Sciences Research Building
Campus Box 8225
phone: (314)362-8426
fax: (314)362-9940


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Email Addresses

Barry Siegel
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Delphine Chen
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Farrokh Dehdashti
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Keith Fischer
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Robert Gropler
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Tom Miller
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Mark Mintun
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Henry Royal
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Richard Laforest
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Sally Schwarz
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