discovered_01_2016 - Sixty Years of Radiopharmacy in Dresden

WWW.HZDR.DE discovered 01.16 PANORAMA PANORAMA – HZDR NEWS Sixty Years of Radiopharmacy in Dresden Sixty years ago, that is, shortly after Rossendorf was established as a research site on January 1, 1956, radioactive substances had started to be developed for use in medicine and business. At that time, there was no clear distinction between radiochemistry and radiopharmacy; instead, attention was focused on producing radionuclides at the research reactor as well as on separating, purifying and handling them. Today’s Clinic and Polyclinic for Nuclear Medicine at Dresden University Hospital can also look back on a sixty-year history. The medical use of radionuclides, however, started as early as 1939 with the first application of iodine-131. Today, some 60,000 therapies and more than two million diagnostic examinations take place in nuclear medicine in Germany every year. Between 1959 and 1969, at Rossendorf’s Central Institute for Nuclear Research (ZfK), so-called isotope production, that is, the commercial manufacture of radiopharmaceuticals, was developed under the director of the Radiochemistry Section, Kurt Schwabe. Particularly under his successor, Rudolf Münze, production was placed on a scientific footing, modernized and expanded extensively. In particular, this involved the manufacture of fission molybdenum-99/ technetium-99m generators (Rossendorf was thus the world’s second producer of fission molybdenum). At the same time, ZfK researchers were working on new substances and on how to manufacture them at a high quality level. The iodine-131 therapy was employed in both Eastern and Western Europe. The "Rossendorf Standard", which became a catchword in Central and Eastern Europe, is indicative of the institute’s development into one of the leading radiopharmacy research centers. When the Research Center Rossendorf was founded on 1.1.1992, Bernd Johannsen became the head of the Institute of Radiopharmacy. He focused to a greater extent on the biochemical-medical origins of radiopharmacy and on applied basic research. Thanks to closer academic ties with TU Dresden, the institute became more involved in teaching and doctoral training. In 1995, a cyclotron went into operation with which the radioactive source materials for cancer diagnosis with the aid of Positron Emission Tomography (PET) were produced. This was followed by a full-body PET camera in 1997, the year that also saw the formal inauguration of the PET Center Rossendorf. It is here that the partners HZDR, University Hospital and TU Dresden still cooperate closely for the benefit of cancer patients to this day. For 20 years, until the PET camera was relocated to the University Hospital in 2015, patients came to Rossendorf for their appointments; some 17,000 examinations were conducted. Fighting cancer with radiation In order to keep improving cancer cure rates many new approaches are needed. Today’s Institute of Radiopharmaceutical Cancer Research favours a combination of imaging techniques on the one hand and endoradionuclide therapy on the other. The latter involves the radiotherapeutic agent killing the cancer cells from within the tumor or the metastases. In order to be successful in this endeavor, close cooperation with medical partners in the context of NCT Dresden (NCT = National Center for Tumor Diseases) is essential. HZDR benefits in any case from decades of expertise in radioactive substances and biochemical competency. Across the world, oncologists and patients are currently pinning their hopes on immunotherapy. How to furnish novel immunotherapeutic agents with an additional radioactive label is a further research area now being explored at HZDR under the leadership of Jörg Steinbach and Michael Bachmann. Art at the new Center for Radiopharmaceutical Tumor Research – the installation “Strahlen” (rays, beams) by artist Karl-Heinz Adler was officially unveiled on 28 May by Saxon State Minister of Science and the Arts, Dr. Eva-Maria Stange. Photo: André Forner

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