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JNM Publishes Procedure Standard/Practice Guideline for Fibroblast Activation Protein PET

Reston, VA (January 24, 2025)—The Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) and the European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM) have issued a new procedure standard/practice guideline for the use of fibroblast activation protein (FAP) PET. Published in the January issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine, the procedure standard/practice guideline was developed to assist providers in recommending and performing FAP PET, as well as interpreting and reporting results of the imaging studies.

FAP is a transmembrane protein expressed on both cancer-associated fibroblasts and on normal activated fibroblasts involved in wound healing and tissue repair. FAP has long been a target for cancer therapy, but the development of FAP targeted radioligands has led to an increased interest in imaging FAP for assessment of cancer and other diseases.

 “FAP PET imaging can be used for initial staging, re-staging, therapy response evaluation, and whole-body target expression assessment for therapy selection,” noted the authors. “This procedure standard/practice guideline provides referring physicians with the best available evidence to help them to deliver the best possible diagnostic efficacy and study quality for their patients.”

 The procedure standard/practice guideline outlines several oncologic indications for FAP PET imaging, including gastro-intestinal adenocarcinoma, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, esophageal, head and neck cancer, thyroid, lung, ovarian and breast cancers, as well as non-oncologic indications such as inflammation and fibrosis. In addition, it reviews the qualifications and responsibilities of imaging personnel, and presents standardized quality control/quality assurance procedures and imaging procedures for FAP PET. 

 “FAP PET is in its early days, and there will be significant changes to our understanding of its role as we learn more,” the authors said. “Moving forward, it is essential to establish well-designed prospective clinical trials to help elucidate the clinical role of FAP PET and lead to regulatory approval of these imaging agents. There will also be a need to better understand the clinical impact of more accurate disease detection and treatment response assessment. FAP PET is an incredibly promising imaging agent, and we look forward to its broad future in clinical practice.”

The full procedure standard/practice guideline for FAP PET imaging can be viewed on SNMMI’s website. 

The authors of “SNMMI Procedure Standard/EANM Practice Guideline for Fibroblast Activation Protein (FAP) PET” include Thomas A. Hope, Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California San Francisco (UCSF), San Francisco, California, UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, and Department of Radiology, San Francisco VA Medical Center, San Francisco, California; Jeremie Calais, Ahmanson Translational Theranostics Division, Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, and Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California; Ajit H. Goenka, Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota; Uwe Haberkorn, Department of Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany; Mark Konijnenberg, Radiology and Nuclear Medicine Department, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, Netherlands; Jonathan McConathy, Department of Radiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama; Daniela E. Oprea-Lager, Department of Medical Imaging, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands; Laura Trimnal, Department of Radiology, San Francisco VA Medical Center, San Francisco, California; Elcin Zan, Department of Radiology, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio; Ken Herrmann, Department of Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital Essen, University of Duisburg–Essen, Essen, Germany, and German Cancer Consortium, Partner Site University Hospital Essen, and German Cancer Research Center, Essen, Germany; Christophe M. Deroose, Nuclear Medicine, University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven, Belgium, and Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Department of Imaging and Pathology, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.

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Please visit the SNMMI Media Center for more information about molecular imaging and precision imaging. To schedule an interview with the researchers, please contact Rebecca Maxey at (703) 652-6772 or [email protected].

About JNM and the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging

 The Journal of Nuclear Medicine (JNM) is the world’s leading nuclear medicine, molecular imaging and theranostics journal, accessed 15 million times each year by practitioners around the globe, providing them with the information they need to advance this rapidly expanding field. Current and past issues of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine can be found online at http://jnm.snmjournals.org.

JNM is published by the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI), an international scientific and medical organization dedicated to advancing nuclear medicine, molecular imaging, and theranostics—precision medicine that allows diagnosis and treatment to be tailored to individual patients in order to achieve the best possible outcomes. For more information, visit www.snmmi.org.