September is Pain Awareness Month. According to Johns Hopkins, nearly 100 million Americans experience chronic pain, and advocates across the country use this month to bring awareness to the issue.
This month also brings a special focus on ground-breaking therapeutics working to identify, diagnose and successfully treat diseases that cause pain. One treatment you may not traditionally think of as medicine, but is critically important to alleviating suffering, is nuclear medicine. While nuclear is commonly thought of as electricity, nuclear medicine is a pillar in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases like cancer, blood imbalances, hyperthyroidism and more.
NEI’s Janet Schlueter is sharing more on this life-saving tool for diagnosis and treatment.
What is nuclear medicine?
Nuclear medicine is a medical specialty where patients are safely given radioactive substances, called radiopharmaceuticals, by inhalation, ingestion or injection. Radiation-detection machines are then able to see and record the amount and location of radioactive material emitting from within the patient’s body to diagnose or treat disease.
Nuclear medicine is different from other diagnostics like X-rays because nuclear medicine is able to identify a disease from within the body, as opposed to X-rays which use radiation to look into the body from the outside.
How is nuclear medicine used in the detection of diseases?
The radiopharmaceutical given to a patient is often combined with or bound to another chemical, referred to as a “tracer.” The tracer naturally seeks out specific body parts or functions. For example, a tracer might seek out bones whereas another tracer might seek out the lungs or kidneys. Any condition out of the ordinary such as a bone fracture would result in an increased concentration of the tracer, commonly referred to as a “hot spot.” Alternatively, certain diseases or conditions might result in a “cold spot” because the organ is not functioning the way it should. Therefore, the selection by medical professionals of the correct radiopharmaceutical and tracer are key to diagnosing and treating disease.
How is nuclear medicine used in the treatment of diseases and what are some diseases it can treat?
Nuclear medicine is used to treat certain diseases or conditions such as thyroid cancers, hypothyroidism (an underactive thyroid) and some blood disorders. In these cases, radiopharmaceuticals are safely given to the patient orally or by injection at a location that is a short distance to the body area of concern. That way, other uninvolved organs or body parts are not affected or damaged by the therapeutic dose of the radiopharmaceutical used to treat the disease or condition. In the case of thyroid cancer, for example, Iodine-131 is administered to kill the cancer cells in the thyroid. This procedure is often used in combination with surgery or other treatment methods to help ensure the desired patient outcome.
What are a few examples of commonly-known radiopharmaceuticals and what are they used for?
Three of the most common radiopharmaceuticals used in nuclear medicine today are Technetium-99m used for imaging and functional studies of the brain, lungs, liver, blood and various tumors; Thallium-201 used to diagnose cardiac disease; and Iodine-131 used to treat thyroid disease and cancer.
Are there any plans in the U.S. to build new facilities that will manufacture radiopharmaceuticals?
Yes, today there are several companies seeking authorization from federal and state governments to build and operate radiopharmaceutical manufacturing facilities in the United States. The production of radiopharmaceuticals is key to the domestic medical community’s goal of becoming less dependent on foreign sources of radiopharmaceuticals, which are used millions of times each year to diagnose and treat disease.
