Opening of the nuclear medicine center at SJD Pediatric Cancer Center Barcelona

Atrys Health (ATRYS), a global company providing prevention, diagnosis, and precision medicine treatment services, is the partner of SJD Pediatric Cancer Center Barcelona to implement and run this new facility.

The center will make it possible to offer new diagnostic imaging and treatment options to children with different conditions, especially tumors, which are currently treated at the SJD Pediatric Cancer Center Barcelona. 

The diagnostic tests to be run at the Nuclear Medicine Department will also benefit patients of Nephrology (urine infections, transplants, obstructive conditions), Endocrinology (thyroid scanning and hyperthyroidism treatment), Neurology (assessment of epileptic fits and the energy needs of each brain region), Rheumatology (bone mass measurements) and Orthopedics and Traumatology. The Hospital performs a diagnostic test of these characteristics on around 1,400 patients every year.  

In the oncology area, the new facilities make it possible to move forward in the treatment and research of pediatric tumors, also called developmental tumors. It enables some tumors to be treated with radiopharmaceuticals. The new therapeutic options include strategies where radionucleotide-marked drugs (radioactives) targeted at specific antibody-marked tumors are administered. . These strategies, known as radioimmunotherapy, will make it possible to step up new-treatment specificity and efficacy. 

Fostering radioimmunotherapy research for pediatric solid tumors

The research team at the SJD Pediatric Cancer Center Barcelona have already started several lines of research to develop different markers and expand radioimmunotherapy to all pediatric solid tumors going forward. 

The new Nuclear Medicine Department center has three next-generation machines for the metabolic diagnosis of tumors, with advanced PET-CT and SPECT-CT imaging techniques, in addition to the lead-lined rooms. 

"This nuclear medicine facility will not only enable faster diagnosis but also improved cancer prognosis in children thanks to the most cutting-edge medical equipment and precise knowledge around the extent of the disease and its response to therapy” said Atrys Executive President Santiago de Torres. 

“The Nuclear Medicine Department is a very important step forward in diagnosing, treating, and researching the rare and complex diseases of many of our patients and delivering added value to a center already known as pioneering, as the SJD Pediatric Cancer Center Barcelona is” said SJD Barcelona Children’s Hospital Chief Executive Officer Manel del Castillo.