St. Luke’s Medical Center introduces novel nuclear medicine

PROSTATE Cancer is one of the most prevalent cancers among men in the Philippines. According to the Philippine Cancer Society, the annual mortality rate due to prostate cancer in the Philippines has increased by 122.5 percent of 5.3 percent a year. Prostate Cancer is a malignant growth in the prostate that can persist for years without producing any symptoms in size or metastasized (spread) to other organs.

Aside from prostate cancer, neuroendocrine carcinoma is also a growing concern in the Philippines. Though this disease can occur anywhere in the body, a neuroendocrine tumor is commonly found in the lungs, appendix, small intestine, rectum, and pancreas.

At present, these diseases are being addressed through surgery, hormone therapy, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or a combination of these, depending on the stage. The St. Luke’s Medical Center Department of Nuclear Medicine and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Center are proud to intro – the Gallium- 68 ( Ga- 68) PET imaging and the Lutetium- 177 ( Lu- 177) radionuclide therapy. These are the latest diagnostic and treatment procedures for castrate-resistant prostate cancer (a state during which the patient is no longer responsive to other types of prostate cancer therapy) and neuroendocrine carcinoma that are already being utilized in cancer centers located in Europe, USA, and Australia. These radiotracers are produced by St, Luke’s highly skilled team composed of a radiopharmacist, radiochemist, and medical physicist using automated top-of-the-line equipment from Germany.