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Department of Nuclear Medicine

Medical Director: Professor Wolfgang A. Weber, MD.

The Department of Nuclear Medicine uses radiopharmaceuticals for diagnostics and treatment of various diseases with particular emphasis on endocrine, cancerous and neurological diseases.

While diagnostic procedures can be performed ambulatory, most treatments with radioactive substances are done on an in-patient basis to achieve optimal results (continuous dosimetry) and to satisfy German radiation protection regulations. Our therapy ward is named after George von Hevesy, a Hungarian pioneer of nuclear medicine and Noble Prize winner, who worked as Professor for Physical Chemistry at the University of Freiburg. The ward is able to accommodate 15 patients at a time. It offers single and double bedrooms, television, telephone and internet connections and a leisure room with fitness equipment.

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Diagnostics

  • Full spectrum of conventional nuclear medicine diagnostics with planar scintigraphy, single-photon computed emission tomography (SPECT), and state-of-the-art hybrid single-photon computed emission tomography/computed tomogragphy (SPECT/CT)
  • Positron emission tomography (PET) and high-end hybrid positron emission tomography/computed tomogragphy (PET/CT) (64-slice CT and time-of-flight PET imaging)
  • Endocrine laboratory and ultrasound for thyroid diseases
  • Highly versatile radiochemistry with on-site production of numerous PET radiopharmaceuticals and therapeutic agents

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Range of Medical Services

  • Highly specialized clinic for benign and malignant thyroid diseases, offering the full spectrum of modern diagnostic and therapeutic options
  • Molecular Imaging
    • Scintigraphy ( SPECT and SPECT/CT) for diseases of the thyroid, skeleton, myocardium, lungs, kidneys and brain. Visualization of lymphatic drainage for sentinel lymph node resection.
    • PET & PET/CT with numerous molecular imaging probes for:
      • Oncology: Detection, staging and treatment monitoring of cancer, in particular lung cancer, lymphoma, gastrointestinal malignancies, prostate cancer, melanoma, neuroendocrine tumors and brain tumors. Molecular imaging targets include glucose, protein and cell membrane metabolism and transport, hormone receptors, perfusion and hypoxia. PET-based radiation treatment planning, especially for stereotactic and intensity modulated radiotherapy.
      • Neurology: State-of-the-art diagnostics, differential diagnostics and follow-up of neurodegenerative disorders, most notably including dementia (e.g., Alzheimer’s disease) and movement disorders (e.g., Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease). Localization of epileptogenic foci in patients with seizures. Molecular imaging target include glucose metabolism, dopamine synthesis and storage, cerebral perfusion, a variety of neurotransmitter receptors and transporters (dopaminergic serotonergic neurotransmission) and beta-amyloid imaging.
      • Cardiology: Detection of viable myocardium in patients with coronary artery disease prior to revascularization.
  • Molecular Therapy
    • Radioiodine therapy of hyperthyroidism
    • Radioiodine therapy and targeted therapies in thyroid cancer
    • Targeted radionuclide therapy of neuroendocrine tumors, including DOTATOC and DOTATATE radiopeptide theapy
    • Treatment of lymphoma with radiolabeled anti-CD20 antibodies
    • Treatment of primary and secondary liver tumors with selective internal radiation therapy (SIRT)
    • Treatment of bone pain secondary to metastases
  • Second Opinion Service

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Certification

  • The Department of Ntsuclear Medicine of the University Medical Center Freiburg is licensed as a training center for nuclear medicine by the European Board of Nuclear Medicine.

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Scientific Activities / Research

Our research focuses on

  • Detection, staging and treatment monitoring of cancer with PET/CT (personalized cancer treatment)
  • Peptide-based molecular imaging probes for biological characterization and treatment of tumors
  • Biological imaging for radiation treatment planning
  • Molecular neuro-imaging in movement disorders and dementia
  • New detector systems, reconstruction algorithms and quantification methods for PET and SPECT

Senior Scientists:

  • Prof. Wolfgang A. Weber, MD (department chair; board-certified nuclear medicine physician; focus on oncology)
  • Philipp T. Meyer, MD, PhD (vice-chair; board-certified nuclear medicine physician; focus on neurology)
  • Christof Rottenburger, MD (attending physician; board-certified nuclear medicine physician; focus neurooncology)
  • Damian Wild, MD (attending physician; board-certified nuclear medicine physician; focus neuroendocrine tumors and radionuclide therapy)
  • Martin Béhé, PhD (chief radiochemist; focus on peptide radiochemistry)
  • Prof. Helmut Maecke, PhD (radiochemist; focus on peptide radiochemistry)
  • Michael Mix, PhD (chief physicist, focus on scanner development and image reconstruction)

Selection of recent publications.

  1. Dumont RA, Hildebrandt I, Su H, Haubner R, Reischl G, Czernin JG, Mischel PS, Weber WA.
    Noninvasive imaging of alphaVbeta3 function as a predictor of the antimigratory and antiproliferative effects of dasatinib.
    Cancer Res. 2009;69:3173-9.
  2. Wild D, Mäcke H, Christ E, Gloor B, Reubi JC.
    Glucagon-like peptide 1-receptor scans to localize occult insulinomas.
    N Engl J Med. 2008;359:766-8.
  3. Weber WA, Grosu AL, Czernin J.
    Technology Insight: advances in molecular imaging and an appraisal of PET/CT scanning.
    Nat Clin Pract Oncol. 2008;5:160-70.
  4. Ginj M, Zhang H, Waser B, Cescato R, Wild D, Wang X, Erchegyi J, Rivier J, Mäcke HR, Reubi JC.
    Radiolabeled somatostatin receptor antagonists are preferable to agonists for in vivo peptide receptor targeting of tumors.
    Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006;103:16436-41.
  5. Meyer PT, Sattler B, Winz OH, Fundke R, Oehlwein C, Kendziorra K, Hesse S, Schaefer WM, Sabri O.
    Kinetic analyses of [123I]IBZM SPECT for quantification of striatal dopamine D2 receptor binding: a critical evaluation of the single-scan approach.
    Neuroimage. 2008;42:548-58.

For full list of publications see: www.pubmed.org (enter Name Initial of scientist of interest, e.g. “Weber WA”).

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News and publications

February 2007: Prostrate Center at the University Medical Center Freiburg

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See also:

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