Inmol lab begins cancer treatment

LAHORE: As the cancer is increasing rapidly, scientists are working hard to combat this fatal disease.

According to a press release issued here on Tuesday, Inmol Cancer Hospital director and his team feel pride in launching first treatment with 177Lu-DOTA-NOC, thus entering a new era of most modern and state of the art theranostics services with Gallium-68 PET scan followed by targeted therapy with Lu-177-DOTA-NOC.

It is envisaged that this theranostics setup will bring a revolution in diagnosis and treatment of cancer patients, because it has the ability to detect and treat cancer with same type of biomolecules. The newly-developed theranostics lab at Inmol is supported by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in the country and Asia.

It is noted that it first became operational on November 1, 2017 after successful commissioning of new equipment by Bernard Mayer (German Engineer) who came to Inmol to install this setup. The commissioning of Automatic Synthesizer and Gallium-68 generator is a landmark achievement of INMOL that became possible under supervision of Dr Abubaker Shahid, Inmol Director, and Dr Irfan Ullah Khan, Chief Project Investigator, funded by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Moreover, research and development in this novel area is rapidly grooming and we endorse that in next few years, Inmol will be able to apply many novel diagnostic and therapeutic ligands, by this machine, Dr Abubaker Shahid said.

He by highlighting the significance of high class services performed by this institute explained that now Inmol is one step forward. He acknowledged the services of Dr Irfan Ullah Khan, his team and IAEA. He thanked Muhammad Naeem, Chairmen Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, Dr SM Javed Akhtar, Member Science (PAEC) and Dr Muhammad Sohaib (Director Medical Science) for their generous support throughout this project.