This year's EANM congress was held in Dusseldorf, Germany. My unofficial view is that attendance was way up. There were the usual exhibitors but the hall and the lectures seemed more crowded than they had been in previous years.

There is growing interest in molecular imaging in Western and Eastern Europe.

One thing that stood out is theranostics, which is using radioactive material to both diagnose and treat cancer. The lectures on this topic were standing room only.

For instance, rubidium with its 60 minute half-life together with PSMA identifies the cancer in the prostate. In theranostics, lutetium with its three-day half life together with PSMA comes to rest within the tumor and kills the prostate cancer.

WOW!

This was a topic a SNMMI and covered even more at EANM.

To my knowledge, the applications are limited today for theranostics but I expect them to grow.

We have written about theranostics quite a bit in recent months, here are links to a few stories in case your curious to learn more:

• Theranostics – Nuclear medicine´s fountain of youth
• New publication calls for greater research and investment in theranostics
• Can theranostics be the key to completely curing colorectal cancer?
• Eyeing theranostics, Sofie Biosciences completes acquisition of Zevacor Pharma
• Theranostics drives personalization of neuroendocrine cancer treatment
• Theranostics takes center stage at SNMMI annual meeting