radiopharmaceuticals

[anxietypeaker]

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hey all,

med student here. i had a few questions. does anyone know what specialties are the ones who are typically administering radiopharmaceuticals for therapeutic purposes (ie monoclonal antibodies conjugated to radioactive chemicals, radioactive iodine for therapeutic purposes)?
1) diag rad + no fellowship (not sure if non fellowship diag radiologists typically see patients even)
2) diag rad + nuclear med (or is it #2 below)
3) diag rad + nuclear rad (dont even know how this is diff from #1?)
4) rad onc (i thought they only due brachytherapy, not systemic....?)
5) heme onc (probably not due to handling/etc?)

 

[shark2000]

You have to be authorized user to be able to administer radioactive material for therapeutic user. It has some requirements that is published in NRC (national regulatory commission) guidelines. There are also different levels to it.

A diagnostic rad with one year of Nucs med fellowship or a rad onc both typically have enough credentials to do all sorts of treatments as the requirements are integrated into their schedule.

Many general radiologists without fellowship in Nuclear medicine are authorized users. From practical purposes, it means that they have enough credentials to do low dose (for hyperthyroid) and high dose (for cancer) iodine treatments.

Other than Iodine treatments and a few others (Sm for bone mets? , ...), many others esp the monoclonal Abs are more in the research stage and are not the standard of care in the community. Pretty much in the community setting, Iodine is the only thing that is done and is done either by radiology or rad onc. Since the number of radiologists are much more than rad oncs, most of it is done by radiology. Not all hospitals have an active radiation oncology service.