MGH Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging 2017 | Page 38

Improving Cancer Care with Molecular Imaging
Umar Mahmood, Benjamin Larimer and Pedram Haidari. Photo by Caroline Magnain.
In November members of the Martinos
Center—along with some 48,000 others—
descended upon Chicago for the 2017
meeting of the Radiological Society of North
America. RSNA, as it is commonly known, is
the premier annual gathering for clinicians,
researchers and other professionals in the
field of radiology.
rent Octreotide Acetate Administration to
Suppress Brown Fat and Cardiac Uptake.”
Brown fat and cardiac uptake pose significant
challenges in FDG-PET imaging in cancer,
where ideally FDG uptake would be limited to
the tumor itself. Here, Heidari and colleagues
showed that injection of the medication
octreotide acetate prior to imaging can reduce
such uptake, and thus improve the distribu-
Among the attendees of the meeting were tion of FDG. He also received the Roentgen
investigators from Umar Mahmood’s group Resident/Fellow Research Award in recogni-
in the Center. Pedram Heidari and Benjamin tion of his research efforts and contributions
Larimer presented findings from their in the radiology residency program of the
research, the results of studies employing Massachusetts General Hospital.
molecular imaging to probe particular bio-
logical questions. Both also received awards Larimer was awarded a Trainee Research
for their presentations.
Prize for his presentation, “Quantitative
Granzyme B PET Imaging Predicts Response
Heidari received a Resident Travel Award to Immunotherapy.” A biomarker of early
for his presentation, “Improved Oncologi- response to therapy would be tremendously
cal 18F-FDG PET Imaging Using Concur- useful in managing cancer. Such individual-
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