- At the Society of Nuclear Medicine & Molecular Imaging
(SNMMI) 2022 Annual Meeting, GE Healthcare proudly showcases
cutting-edge solutions spanning the care continuum and enabling
theranostics in prostate cancer
- This includes a new cyclotron Solid Target Platform which
increases Gallium-68 production and access – a radioisotope used in
molecular imaging for prostate cancer diagnosis, staging and
monitoring
- The company also celebrates its 500th GE Healthcare cyclotron
installation, a type of compact particle accelerator that produces
radioisotopes for use in diagnostic tracers – like Fluorine-18 and
Gallium-68 – which can be imaged using Positron Emission Tomography
(PET) and nuclear medicine systems to identify cancer and other
diseases
GE Healthcare is proud to provide cutting-edge molecular imaging
solutions that enable and increase access to precision health and
theranostics to help improve patient outcomes across care areas,
including prostate cancer – the most prevalent cancer in men and
the third most prevalent cancer overalli.
Where most medical therapies are designed with the ‘average’
patient in mind, theranostics brings together diagnoses and
treatment in one application, providing a more targeted and
personalized therapy than ever before. Clinicians and patients are
especially seeing much success with theranostics in prostate cancer
– a highly manageable disease, but one that is difficult to treat
when diagnosed at a late stage – claiming more than 1.4 million
lives annuallyii.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, clinical adoption of theranostics
slowed due to a delay in elective procedures and the increased risk
posed to its often-immunocompromised patients. However, a surge in
demand for theranostics infrastructureiii is now anticipated
following the U.S. Federal Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of
several new drugs and therapies. This includes the diagnostic
tracer Gallium-68 PSMA-11 and therapy drug Lutetium-177 PSMA-617,
which are key to applying theranostics in prostate cancer.
“Healthcare is timely and personal – and its delivery should be
too,” explains Jean-Luc Procaccini, President & CEO, Molecular
Imaging & Computed Tomography, GE Healthcare. “Theranostics has
the potential to transform care from a look at the ‘average’
patient to a precise look at ‘each’ individual. Already, it is
providing hope to late-stage prostate cancer patients by aiding
with the diagnosis of the disease, the accurate quantification of
its progression, and the delivery of targeted, personalized
therapies – all in the same session. And soon, we hope to see it
adopted earlier in the disease care pathway and across oncology to
benefit more patients around the world.”
To prepare for the creation of dedicated theranostics centers,
SNMMI and related international molecular imaging societies
recently published a new guide for healthcare systems globallyiii.
Focusing on safety protocols and operational procedures, the guide
provides a framework that highlights best practices that can be
applied across care areas.
“Nuclear medicine is entering a new age of precision
theranostics, in which next-generation alpha- and beta-labeled
radiotherapeutics are tailored to individual cancer patients using
the latest diagnostic PET radiopharmaceuticals,” explains Dr. Peter
Scott, Associate Professor of Radiology, Division Director of
Nuclear Medicine, University of Michigan. “With the FDA approval of
a new PSMA-agent for treatment of prostate cancer, the future is
here. Patients, their families and referring physicians are all
demanding access to theranostics, creating an unprecedented demand
for higher and higher amounts of radioactive metals. The only way
to meet the global need for PET radionuclides like Gallium-68 and
Copper-64 is through commercial solid-target solutions suitable for
routine use.”
As the industry prepares to usher in this new era of precision
health and personalized medicine, GE Healthcare is proud to offer
innovative molecular imaging solutions to healthcare systems around
the world.
Discovery with the Molecule Journey:
Enabling Precision Health: The enablement of theranostics in
prostate cancer care begins with the production of radioisotopes
for use in diagnostic tracers – namely Gallium-68 PSMA-11 – which
is administered to the patient, attaches to specific cancer cells,
and releases radioactive emissions to provide detailed molecular
information unique to each patient.
However, shortages of the generators that
produce Gallium-68 historically have created serious challenges for
clinicians and limited patient access. In response, GE Healthcare
is proud to introduce a new Solid Target Platform for its PETtrace
cyclotron which – in combination with its FASTlab 2 New Edition
platform – can produce 100x the amount of Gallium compared to a
generator for increased theranostics capabilities and access in
prostate cancer patient careiv.
While solid targets have been around for some
time, they have traditionally been viewed as research tools and
required complicated infrastructure and highly trained operators.
Now, with GE Healthcare’s TRACERcenter Solutions and new PETtrace
Solid Target Platform, healthcare systems can more easily access
the equipment, tracers and staff training necessary to deliver a
more cost-effective, personalized solution.
Diagnosis: Accurately Staging &
Quantifying Disease: To read the emissions released by the
Gallium-68 PSMA-11 tracer, the patient must be imaged using a
highly sensitive PET/CT scanner. This technology provides the
clinician detailed information that is used to better understand
the structure and function of each patient’s tissue and disease
state to help form personalized therapy recommendations. The more
sensitive the PET/CT, the more accurate the images and
quantification.
To this end, GE Healthcare is now shipping
its Discovery MI Gen 2 premium digital PET/CT system, which
provides next-level digital detection with an axial field of view
(FOV) scalable up to 30 centimeters to achieve a 125 percent
increase in sensitivityv. This helps translate to 33 percent
improvement in scan times or dose amountsvi.
These capabilities are further supported by
Q.Clear, which offers up to 2x improvement in both image quality
(SNR) and quantitation accuracy (SUVvii), and MotionFree for up to
67 percent improvement in lesion volume measurements, helping
inform clinicians’ prostate cancer therapy recommendationsviii.
Additionally, this scanner includes a CT that
is designed to allow TrueFidelity deep-learning image
reconstruction to enable image sharpness and improved noise
textureix. Discovery MI Gen 2 proclaims up to a 41 percent increase
in small lesion detectabilityx.
Treatment: Delivering & Monitoring
Targeted Therapy: With regard to therapy, the FDA recently
approved Lutetium-177 PSMA-617 – an exceptional therapy for
advanced prostate cancer – in March 2022. It works by binding to
and delivering a small amount of radiation to prostate cancer cells
anywhere in the body to help patients with advanced prostate cancer
live longer and maintain quality of lifexi.
To help clinicians evaluate the success of
these therapies, GE Healthcare developed its breakthrough StarGuide
SPECT/CT system with 12 cutting-edge CZT detectors that not only
scan patients in 3D to provide more information to clinicians but
are also optimized for Theranostics procedures – including imaging
this latest Lutetium-177-based prostate cancer therapy.
Compared to conventional technologies,
StarGuide’s Digital Focus CZT detectors offer improved volume
sensitivity and SPECT resolutionxii, which is especially valuable
for imaging both peaks of Lutetium-177
emissions, which in turn helps clinicians pinpoint the size, shape,
and position of lesions with exceptional accuracy. Paired with GE
Healthcare’s innovative Q.Clear solution for SPECT reconstruction,
the resulting images provide outstanding quantification for the
diagnosis and staging of disease and monitoring of treatment.
Increasing Accuracy & Efficiency:
Artificial intelligence (AI) also offers new opportunities to
streamline workflows, provide accurate data, and help expedite
diagnoses across care areas – all valuable offerings in today’s
resource constrained healthcare environment.
That’s why GE Healthcare also offers the
Xeleris V image processing solution with a collection of AI-enabled
clinical applications to help simplify and enhance workflows. This
includes Q.Thera AIxiii, which is designed to leverage Q.Volumetrix
MI to help clinicians automatically and accurately segment areas of
interest – including AI-based kidney segmentation – for
quantitation and dosimetry calculations, all with the goal to help
reduce the time required for the user to process and calculate dose
– enabling them to spend more time with patients.
The advancement of imaging technologies and continuous evolution
and discovery of new tracers and targeted therapies is ushering in
a new era in healthcare – one in which precision health and
theranostics exist at its core. Prostate cancer is only the
beginning, with many more applications under development for the
future.
GE Healthcare is proud to offer clinicians unique opportunities
to make personalized care decisions and treatment response
assessments for the benefit of patients around the world. The
company is uniquely positioned to advance these efforts as the only
partner with solutions spanning from molecular imaging diagnostics,
cyclotrons, chemistry synthesis, PET/CT, PET/MR, nuclear medicine,
advanced digital solutions, and pharma partnerships to cover the
breadth of steps from discovery to diagnosis to treatment.
For more information on GE Healthcare’s Molecular Imaging
portfolio, visit gehealthcare.com or our SNMMI 2022 event overview
page.
About GE Healthcare:
GE Healthcare is the $17.7 billion healthcare business of GE
(NYSE: GE). As a leading global medical technology, pharmaceutical
diagnostics and digital solutions innovator, GE Healthcare enables
clinicians to make faster, more informed decisions through
intelligent devices, data analytics, applications, and services,
supported by its Edison intelligence platform. With over 100 years
of healthcare industry experience and around 48,000 employees
globally, the company operates at the center of an ecosystem
working toward precision health, digitizing healthcare, helping
drive productivity and improve outcomes for patients, providers,
health systems and researchers around the world.
Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Insights for the
latest news, or visit our website www.gehealthcare.com for more
information.
i International Agency for Research on Cancer. Accessed Jun 3,
2022.
https://gco.iarc.fr/today/online-analysis-multi-bars?v=2020&mode=cancer&mode_population=countries&population=900&populations=900&key=total&sex=0&cancer=39&type=0&statistic=5&prevalence=0&population_group=0&ages_group%5B%5D=0&ages_group%5B%5D=17&nb_items=10&group_cancer=0&include_nmsc=0&include_nmsc_other=1&type_multiple=%257B%2522inc%2522%253Afalse%252C%2522mort%2522%253Afalse%252C%2522prev%2522%253Atrue%257D&orientation=horizontal&type_sort=0&type_nb_items=%257B%2522top%2522%253Atrue%252C%2522bottom%2522%253Afalse%257D
ii “Cancer.” World Health Organization. Feb 3, 2022. Accessed Jun
1, 2022. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/cancer
iii “JNM Publishes Joint Guide for the Establishment of
Theranostics Centers.” Society of Nuclear Medicine. Apr 29, 2022.
https://www.snmmi.org/NewsPublications/NewsDetail.aspx?ItemNumber=40416
iv Svedjehed et al. “Demystifying solid targets: Simple and rapid
distribution-scale production of [68Ga]GaCl3 and [68Ga]Ga-PSMA-11.”
Nuclear Medicine and Biology. Volumes 104–105, January–February
2022, Pages 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucmedbio.2021.10.002 v
Sensitivity (cps/kBq) as compared to Discovery MI 20 cm. vi With
Discovery MI Gen 2 30 cm configuration compared to 25 cm
configuration. 33% reduction in scan time or injected dose, as
shown in phantom testing. vii SNR and SUV improvement as compared
to OSEM viii Compared to non-processed (STATIC, no motion
correction) data. As demonstrated in phantom testing using a
typical and fast respiratory model, 18 mm Ge-68 spheres, and OSEM
reconstruction. ix As demonstrated in a clinical evaluation
consisting of 60 cases and seven physicians, where each case was
reconstructed with both DLIR and ASiR-V™ and evaluated by three of
the physicians. In 90 percent of the reads, DLIR’s noise texture
was rated better than ASiR-V’s. In 99 percent of the reads, DLIR’s
image sharpness was rated the same as or better than ASiR-V’s. x
Discovery MI Gen 2 30 cm compared to Discovery MI 25 cm with
matched scan time/injected dose. As demonstrated in phantom
testing. xi “Breaking News: First-in-Class Radioligand Therapy
Approved for Advanced Prostate Cancer,” Prostate Cancer Foundation.
March 23, 2022.
https://www.pcf.org/c/breaking-news-first-in-class-radioligand-therapy-approved-for-advanced-prostate-cancer/#:~:text=Lutetium%2DPSMA%2D617%20(Lu%2DPSMA)%20is%20now,and%20taxane%2Dbased%20chemotherapy
xii StarGuide SPECT reconstruction with scatter used the system’s
factory NEMA NU 1-2018 resolution protocol which uses the same
method (BSREM with Clarity 3D) as its clinical bone protocol. NM/CT
870 DR and NM/CT 870 CZT SPECT reconstruction used Evolution for
Bone (OSEM). NM/CT 870 DR used LEHR/LEHRS collimators and NM/CT 870
CZT used the WEHR collimator. xiii CE marked. 510k pending with the
FDA. Not available for sale in all regions.
Note: Radiopharmaceuticals may not be approved by ministers of
health in all regions. Gallium-68 PSMA-11 and Lutetium-177 PSMA-617
are not approved in Canada.
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Media Contacts: Margaret Steinhafel Chicago
Margaret.Steinhafel@ge.com +1 608 381 8829
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