Briefly, the NAS report

* calls for an enhanced federal commitment to nuclear medicine research,
* recommends that regulatory requirements-for toxicology and current good manufacturing practices facilities-be clarified and simplified,

* notes that domestic medical radionuclide production should be improved,
* suggests that DOE and NIH consider convening expert panels to identify critical national needs for training nuclear medicine scientists and
* encourages interdisciplinary collaboration.

"DOE-supported high-risk/high-reward nuclear medicine research has been directed at the fundamental and technological aspects of biomedical imaging and radiotherapy that make technological breakthroughs possible," said SNM President-Elect Robert W. Atcher, University of New Mexico/Los Alamos National Laboratory professor of pharmacy in the College of Pharmacy at the University of New Mexico and a former DOE grant recipient. Atcher's ongoing research project-to explore the use of radioactive isotopes to kill cancer cells and reduce the radiation dose to normal tissues-was "zeroed out" in 2006 with the loss of $400,000 in federal funds. "We are potentially losing the ability to treat some very resistant cancers with this new technology because we don't have the funding to continue the research on our idea. We needed at least two more years of funding to demonstrate the biologic effectiveness of our approach before the National Institutes of Health would consider funding the work," he explained.

Molecular imaging/nuclear medicine is a multidisciplinary science and medical specialty that uses radiopharmaceutical agents and radiation-detection instruments for the diagnosis and treatment of disease and for biomedical research. Annually, more than 20 million men, women, and children need noninvasive molecular/nuclear medicine procedures. These safe, cost-effective procedures include: positron emission tomography (PET) scans to diagnose and monitor treatment of cancer, cardiac stress tests to analyze heart function, bone scans for orthopedic injuries, and lung scans for blood clots. Patients also undergo procedures to diagnose liver and gall bladder abnormal function and to diagnose and treat hyperthyroidism and thyroid cancer.

More information will be posted on SNM's Web site at www.snm.org.

About SNM-Advancing Molecular Imaging and Therapy
SNM is an international scientific and professional organization of more than 16,000 members dedicated to promoting the science, technology and practical applications of molecular imaging and nuclear medicine to diagnose, manage and treat diseases in women, men and children. Founded more than 50 years ago, SNM continues to provide essential resources for health care practitioners and patients; publish the most prominent peer-reviewed journal in the field (the Journal of Nuclear Medicine); host the premier annual meeting for medical imaging; sponsor research grants, fellowships and awards; and train physicians, technologists, scientists, physicists, chemists and radiopharmacists in state-of-the-art imaging procedures and advances. SNM members have introduced-and continue to explore-biological and technological innovations in medicine that noninvasively investigate the molecular basis of diseases, benefiting countless generations of patients. SNM is based in Reston, Va.; additional information can be found online at http://www.snm.org.

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