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Scott Snyder, PhD explains the function of the vented cabinet used to develop radiopharmaceuticals from isotopes created by the cyclotron

Last month, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital cut the ribbon on the newly completed Chili’s Care Center, a 340,000-square-foot, 7-story facility that will house the National Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium (PBTC), St. Jude’s Department of Radiological Sciences, inpatient beds and activity areas, and new research laboratories. The Chili’s Care Center is a partnership between St. Jude and Chili’s Grill and Bar® to expand the treatment and research capabilities of the hospital.

With 21st century imaging technology and St. Jude’s approach to medical research, which puts patients and scientists in the same building, the new facility is expected to greatly expand research initiatives and treatment strategies.

The Chili’s Care Center possesses high-tech equipment such as a cyclotron, which will provide an array of new research initiatives in nuclear medicine by using innovative radio-tagged pharmaceuticals to track tumor level and response to therapies. In addition, the department’s radiation oncology division will use sophisticated 3-D imaging and linear accelerator technologies to produce highly conformal treatment plans.

“The Chili’s Care Center is a significant part of our long-term strategy to translate basic research at St. Jude into the most advanced and effective care of patients,” William E. Evans, PharmD, director and CEO of St. Jude said at the grand opening. “Integrating patient care and research holds the key to more rapid advances in science and medicine.”

The facility houses the new bone marrow transplant unit, increasing its former 14-bed capacity to 18 beds. Additionally, the top two floors of the building are research and laboratory space. Each research laboratory in the center is approximately 725-square-feet and brings the total campus lab count to 182. Doctors’ administrative offices will also be housed in the center.

Since 2002, Chili’s has been raising money for St. Jude through their Create-a-Pepper campaign, which went national in 2004. Since then, more than $18.7 million has been raised, all of which contributes to Chili’s plan to donate $50 million to St. Jude over 10 years, the largest single partner donation in the hospital’s history. Other contributors to the care center include the Tri Delta fraternity that will help fund the bone marrow transplant patient care floor, and the Wall Street Committee, which has donated funds to expand the research lab for world renowned flu expert Robert Webster.

“This new facility will help us maintain our leadership role in defining the forefront of research to advance the treatment of children with cancer and other catastrophic pediatric diseases,” said Evans.



Cyclotron Links Past and Future

Researchers in the oncology department have been working on a therapeutic antibody they want to develop for clinical trials. Before starting the trial, they’d like to see exactly where that antibody travels in the body. Thanks to the addition of a new cyclotron, they will get their wish.

The star of St. Jude’s new Chili’s Care Center is a powerful cyclotron, also know as a particle accelerator. The cyclotron uses magnets and electric fields to whip charged particles around, such as protons, by reversing polarity of the magnets repeatedly until the particles smash together and become radioactive. The isotopes made from the cyclotron are combined with a chemical mixture making it a radiopharmaceutical which acts as a tag, or tracer. PET scans track the movement of the tagged molecule throughout the body to precisely locate tumors. Molecular imaging research will allow clinicians to use these new compounds in both brain tumors and in solid tumors in children.

Since the drugs used for PET imaging have a very short life span, from just a few minutes to two hours, having the cyclotron in the hospital is vital to quickly translating research to patients.

“Having the ability to make the radio-isotope on site, then quickly combine the new material with an antibody or compound that will bind to and identify the tumor, allows an entire new area of diagnostic investigation,” explained Dr. Larry Kun, chair of the St. Jude department of radiological sciences.

St. Jude has the first installation of this type of cyclotron in the United States.

“Using these short-lived radioactive tracers, we shall be able to target specific tumor types or areas of tumor activity that should allow us to better identify areas of tumor involvement and responses associated with therapy,” Kun clarified.

In the study with the therapeutic antibody, researchers can trace how much of the antibody makes it to the tumor and how much does not, as well as how long it takes the body to assimilate it.

Scott Snyder, PhD, director of nuclear chemistry in the St. Jude department of radiological sciences, explained how researchers can help clinicians perform individual dose targeting with radiopharmaceuticals. For instance, Snyder explained, some patients may not have as much of an antigen that a therapeutic antibody binds to, which means they might need a higher dose of the receptor.

“The imaging could tell them how much they need to give a patient,” Snyder said. “We can tell them how much is literally going to a tumor and how much is going everywhere else.”

Added Kun, “The facility at St. Jude is the only nuclear chemistry program dedicated to childhood cancer in the world. It’s an opportunity to provide novel diagnostic tools and move toward new therapeutic approaches for some of the more common, less successfully treated brain tumors and solid tumors in children.”



December 2007

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