Research in the Division of Nuclear Medicine
Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology

The Division of Nuclear Medicine is a research leader in oncologic applications of PET. With metabolic tracers, such as [¹⁸F]-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose (FDG), PET has exhibited high sensitivity and specificity for detecting primary and metastatic tumors, for distinguishing recurrent tumor from post-therapeutic fibrosis or necrosis, and for monitoring and predicting response to therapy. PET with biologically more specific tracers, such as radiolabeled estrogens and markers of hypoxic tissue, has the potential to identify phenotypic characteristics of the tumor in individual patients so that therapy can be tailored to that patient. Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology’s Division of Nuclear Medicine has oncologic applications of PET as one of its key research focuses. Current areas of interest include studies to assess the efficacy of staging of several different cancers with FDG-PET, predicting therapeutic responsiveness of breast carcinoma and assessing tumor hypoxia.

Other research interests include neurology PET, cardiac nuclear medicine, drug investigations, new imaging agents, and digital imaging processing and reconstruction.

Information regarding specific projects can be found as part of the more general research sites at:

• Siteman Cancer Center
• Center for Clinical Imaging Research
• PET Research at Washingon University (via ClinicalTrials.gov)