OKLAHOMA CITY — OU Health is preparing to bring a newly FDA-approved brain cancer imaging technology to Oklahoma with the addition of Javier Villanueva-Meyer, M.D., who served as lead neuroradiologist for the U.S. clinical trial behind its approval.
Villanueva-Meyer recently joined OU Health as chair of the Department of Radiological Sciences at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine and clinical service chief of radiology for OU Health.
The imaging agent, Pixclara, also known as 18F-FET, is the first FDA-approved PET imaging agent designed to help distinguish recurrent or progressive glioma from changes caused by treatment.
Gliomas are tumors that begin in the brain or spinal cord. Active tumors and treatment-related changes can sometimes look similar on conventional MRI scans, making it difficult for physicians to determine whether a tumor has progressed.
“MRI is our current standard of care and it is a fantastic technology, but it primarily shows us the anatomy,” Villanueva-Meyer said. “FET-PET gives us information about what is happening within the tissue.”
The imaging agent is injected before a PET scan and is absorbed differently by active tumor cells and treatmentaffected tissue, giving physicians additional information when evaluating scans.
FET-PET imaging has been used in Europe for nearly two decades but has not been widely available in the United States.
OU Health is now evaluating the clinical and operational steps needed to offer the imaging technology, including obtaining the agent and establishing protocols for its use.
Villanueva-Meyer and colleagues at the University of California, San Francisco, conducted the trial that generated U.S. clinical data used in the FDA review.