Nuclear Medicine

Nuclear Medicine at the Centre for Medical Imaging (CMI) uses Total Body PET-CT and novel radiotracers to uncover disease biology, enable earlier detection and improve treatment pathways.

Vision

The CMI’s Nuclear Medicine department is focused on developing innovative research using Total Body (TB) PET-CT and novel radiotracers to reveal new insights into disease biology and patient care. We aim to characterise pathophysiology across organs, detect disease earlier and refine treatment pathways. 

Ambition within CMI 

Our ambition is to build a sustainable, high-impact research portfolio and team that uses state-of-the-art nuclear medicine tools to improve patient pathways and deepen our understanding of disease. We will achieve this through close collaboration with our partners within the Department of Imaging: 

  • UCL’s Centre for Radiochemistry (for tracer development and production);
  • CABI (Centre for Advanced Biomedical Imaging) (for pre-clinical studies); 

We are also collaborating with the 2 other TB PET centres in the UK at KCL and Edinburgh with a growing portfolio of grant applications for multi-site research projects. We have existing research collaborations across the Royal Free (Scleroderma, Lung cancer, National Amyloidosis Centre), UCLH (Urology), Royal Marsden (Urology) and international research partners (Groningen) 

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Radiopharmaceutical Chemistry chemicals

Radiochemistry

The Centre for Radiopharmaceutical Chemistry is a multidisciplinary research centre for the development and clinical translation of novel biomedical imaging agents.

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A medical operative oversees a person about to enter the inside of a large scanner

Centre for Advanced Biomedical Imaging

Housing state-of-the-art imaging technologies, the Centre for Advanced Biomedical Imaging (CABI) is one of the most advanced biomedical imaging facilities in the world.

Current Research Programme 

Led by Dr Thomas Wagner (Consultant in Nuclear Medicine at the Royal Free London; Honorary Associate Professor at UCL/CMI), our initial programme includes: 

  • Kidney cancer: evaluating ⁸⁹Zr-girentuximab for early detection of metastatic disease in renal cell carcinoma.
  • Prostate cancer: deploying PSMA PET-CT to improve the pre-biopsy diagnostic pathway for men with suspected prostate cancer. 
Dr Thomas Wagner
Dr Thomas Wagner

Honorary Associate Professor

Partnership with the Royal Free London Nuclear Medicine department 

CMI’s Nuclear Medicine activity is tightly linked with the Royal Free London through Dr Wagner’s dual appointment and with strong links and collaboration with Dr Beverley Holman, Principal PET physicist and MPE, honorary associate professor at UCL. This partnership combines: 

  • Royal Free London NHS Trust’ strengths — large NHS Trust with 3 hospitals (Royal Free, Barnet and North Middlesex University Hospital), large patient population, expertise in rare diseases (scleroderma, amyloidosis, pulmonary hypertension);
  • CMI strengths — translational research expertise, methodology development and cross-disciplinary collaboration. 

Together, we will deliver bench-to-bedside studies that can revolutionise patient pathways. 

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Outside image of the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead

Royal Free

Sharing a modern building with the Royal Free Hospital, the Royal Free campus is situated in attractive Hampstead, close to the heart of London.

Facilities and Whole-Body Capability at the Royal Free 

The Royal Free nuclear medicine department provides a comprehensive platform for clinical innovation and research: 

  • PET-CT: two digital PET-CT systems, including the first installed Total Body PET-CT in the UK (Siemens Vision Quadra).
  • SPECT: 2 SPECT-CT cameras and 1 SPECT camera.
  • DEXA scanner.
  • Radiopharmacy: GMP-compliant radiopharmacy with on-site production capability.
  • In-vitro laboratory supporting translational studies.
  • Radionuclide therapy: the largest theranostics unit in the UK, delivering peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT) for neuroendocrine tumours and prostate cancer. 

Publications

  1. Warren H, Wagner T, Gorin MA, Rowe S, Holman BF, Pencharz D, El-Sheikh S, Barod R, Patki P, Mumtaz F, Bex A, Kasivisvanathan V, Moore CM, Campain N, Cartledge J, Scarsbrook A, Hassan F, O’Brien TS, Stewart GD, Mendichovszky I, Dizdarevic S, Alanbuki A, Wildgoose WH, Wah T, Vindrola-Padros C, Pizzo E, Dehbi HM, Lorgelly P, Gurusamy K, Emberton M, Tran MGB. Protocol for a MULTI-centre feasibility study to assess the use of 99mTc-sestaMIBI SPECT/CT in the diagnosis of kidney tumours (MULTI-MIBI study).BMJ Open. 2023 Jan 24;13(1):e067496. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2022-067496. PMID: 36693694
  2. Pencharz D, Modi S, Bandyopadhyay S, Alhun U, Marchbank N, Patel A, Wagner T. Absence of clinical benefit of FDG PET-CT in staging T1 part-solid lung adenocarcinoma. Clin Radiol. 2022 Mar;77(3):195-202. doi: 10.1016/j.crad.2021.11.013. Epub 2021 Dec 23. PMID: 34953570
  3. Wagner T, Page J, Burniston M, Skillen A, Ross JC, Manwani R, McCool D, Hawkins PN, Wechalekar AD. Extracardiac 18F-florbetapir imaging in patients with systemic amyloidosis: more than hearts and minds. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2018 Jul;45(7):1129-1138. doi: 10.1007/s00259-018-3995-2. Epub 2018 Apr 12.