Over the next five to six years, researchers, clinicians, patients, and a host of nonprofit organizations from across the U.S. will collaborate to tackle a few of the nation’s most vexing and complex health issues via the Imaging Dementia — Evidence for Amyloid Scanning (IDEAS) study of Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, and cognitive impairment.  The $100 million, groundbreaking IDEAS study will, among a series of goals, evaluate the clinical utility of amyloid PET imaging to diagnose these debilitating conditions, according to Dr. Gil Rabinovici, an assistant professor of neurology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Memory and Aging Center. {read more here}

A molecular imaging biomarker is able to detect fast-growing primary prostate cancer and distinguish it from benign prostate lesions, addressing an unmet clinical need. The new research, published in the July 2015 issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine, is significant for patients with suspected prostate cancer that has not been confirmed by standard biopsy. {read more here}

The study from Baptist Cancer Center and the University of Memphis in Tennessee looked at the records of 614 patients who underwent surgery for suspected lung cancer between 2009 and 2013. The researchers found that only 10% of patients had all three recommended staging tests before surgery: a CT scan, a PET/CT scan, and an invasive test (Ann Thorac Surg, August 2015, Vol. 100:2, pp. 394-400). {read more here}

Diabetes drugs might someday be leveraged against pancreatic and prostate cancer cells, as a recent PET study from researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), has shed new light on how cancer cells import glucose. {read more here}