Nuclear Medicine is Molecular Imaging!
Hossein Jadvar, MD, PhD, MPH, MBA, FACNM, FACNP
President, LARS
Nuclear Medicine Section
Associate Professor of Radiology and Biomedical Engineering
Director of Radiology Research
Keck School of
Medicine
University of Southern California
Molecular imaging is emerging as an important research tool in the way that we study cellular and molecular events in vivo, and it is expected to lead radiology into the forefront of molecular and clinical medicine. Molecular imaging is the product of concurrent advances in molecular and cellular biology, chemistry, computing, and imaging science. It will pave the way in the evolution from the current, nonspecific imaging methods toward patient-specific imaging evaluation based on morphologic, physiologic, molecular, and genetic markers of disease. Nuclear medicine has taken a leading role in this exciting endeavor since it inherently has had and will continue to have its foundation on molecular medicine.
Nuclear medicine may have faced some challenges in the past but now is one of the most exciting and growing branches of medical imaging. We are now witnessing unprecedented growth and dissemination of combined SPECT-CT and PET-CT imaging systems; development of new biologically-based radiotracers for imaging and radiopharmaceuticals for radioimmunotherapy, recent changes and improvements in post-graduate training duration and content, and growing interest among young physicians and physician-scientists in pursuing careers in nuclear medicine.