Changed Regulation Enables Pragmatic Solution for Cancer Patients

Comment on the editorial “Feasibility of Lu-PSMA Administration in Outpatient Day Hospital for Prostate Cancer - 177Lu-PSMA day-hospital procedure” by Zagni et al.

Prolonged hospitalisation of cancer patients after radiopharmaceutical therapy enforced by national legislation is limiting the treatment capacity for new radioligand therapies in some Member States, while in others patients can leave the hospital a few hours after administration of the radiopharmaceutical. There are ways to satisfy the radiation protection legislation European Directive 2013/59/Euratom with adequate patient instructions at the time of hospital release. In Italy, the transposition of this Directive into national law in 2020 abrogated obligatory hospitalisation and paved the way for flexible and pragmatic solutions provided the treating physician, the medical physicist and the radiation protection officer take the responsibility for the instructions they issue to the released patient and his/her family members. In this way, more cancer patients can be treated with the existing nuclear medicine infrastructure.

HOLZWARTH Uwe; 

2024-12-10

SOC NUCLEAR MEDICINE INC

JRC139432

1535-5667 (online),    0161-5505 (print),   

https://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/early/2024/11/07/jnumed.124.268945,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC139432,   

10.2967/jnumed.124.268945 (online),