Nuclear Medicine
The division is a national leader in PET/CT clinical volumes and research, and has held this status ever since PET/CT’s invention at UPMC in the 1990s. Recent innovations in the PET/CT service include unified PET/CT reporting, which has resulted in better patient care and has enhanced the level of service to referring physicians. This program has attracted the interest of several fellowship candidates and outside institutions.
In addition to PET/CT, the division has a comprehensive PET imaging center, which provides a full range of diagnostic and therapeutic nuclear medicine services, with major interest in the treatment of thyroid diseases and thyroid cancer, as well as in radioimmunotherapy of lymphomas. The division serves as a referral center for thyroid cancer and thyroid therapy for western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio. Cutting-edge studies, such as F-18 FDG-PET for Alzheimer’s disease, are offered here, courtesy of a state-of-the-art PET chemistry and cyclotron facility.
The division’s cancer imaging research program is robust, and is a collaborative effort between division faculty and faculty of the Hillman Cancer Center and the department’s own PET Research Center. Current interests include early cancer therapy assessment, particularly in colorectal and breast cancers, as well as the creation of new cancer imaging agents. In this course of study, the division is investigating new multimodalities, such as PET/MR/optical imaging.
The division also benefits from a strong relationship with the Department of Neurology and the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, which performs and coordinates AD-related clinical and research activities. The division is based at UPMC Presbyterian, and division faculty staff UPMC Shadyside and Hillman
Cancer Center.