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Resumen La tomografía por emisión de positrones/tomografía computarizada (PET/TC) con 68 Ga-PSMA es una técnica de imagen no invasiva para el estudio del cáncer de próstata con incremento de la expresión del antígeno prostático específico de membrana ( prostate-specific membrane antigen , PSMA). El PSMA es una proteína transmembrana presente en todos los tejidos prostáticos. El incremento de la expresión de PSMA está presente en varios tumores, aunque su concentración es más elevada en el cáncer de próstata. Casi todos los adenocarcinomas de próstata muestran expresión de PSMA en la mayoría de las lesiones, tanto primarias como metastásicas. Estudios inmunohistoquímicos han demostrado que la expresión de PSMA está incrementada en pacientes con tumores desdiferenciados, metastásicos u hormonorrefractarios. Más aún, el nivel de expresión del PSMA tiene un valor pronóstico para la evolución de la enfermedad. La tomografía por emisión de positrones proporciona una medida de la distribución tridimensional del 68 Ga-PSMA, obteniendo imágenes semicuantitativas que permiten valorar de forma no invasiva la expresión de PSMA. Positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) with 68 Ga-PSMA is a non-invasive diagnostic technique to image prostate cancer with increased prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) expression. PSMA is a transmembrane protein present in all prostatic tissues. Increased PSMA expression is seen in several malignancies, although prostate cancer is the tumour where it presents higher concentrations. Almost all prostate adenocarcinomas show PSMA expression in most of lesions, primary and metastatic. Immunohistochemistry has demonstrated that the expression of PSMA increases in patients with de-differentiated, metastatic or hormone-refractory tumours. Moreover, the expression level of PSMA has a prognostic value for disease outcome. PET measures the three-dimensional distribution of 68 Ga-PSMA, producing semi-quantitative images that allow for non-invasive assessment of PSMA expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The radionuclide bone scan is the cornerstone of skeletal nuclear medicine imaging. Bone scintigraphy is a highly sensitive diagnostic nuclear medicine imaging technique that uses a radiotracer to evaluate the distribution of active bone formation in the skeleton related to malignant and benign disease, as well as physiological processes. Methods: The European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM) has written and approved these guidelines to promote the use of nuclear medicine procedures of high quality. Conclusion: The present guidelines offer assistance to nuclear medicine practitioners in optimizing the diagnostic procedure and interpreting bone scintigraphy. These guidelines describe the protocols that are currently accepted and used routinely, but do not include all existing procedures. They should therefore not be taken as exclusive of other nuclear medicine modalities that can be used to obtain comparable results. It is important to remember that the resources and facilities available for patient care may vary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social and communication skills play an important role in the relationship between healthcare professionals and their patients. In this field, it is plausible that clinical empathy and loneliness play an important role of influence. However, the knowledge about this roll is still scarce. The main purpose of this review was to collect findings reported on this matter in students and healthcare professionals. The review included: articles published in English or Spanish during the last fifty years that were indexed in MedLine or SCOPUS, with students or health professionals as participants, and where empathy and loneliness had been used as main measures. Eleven articles, published between 1986 and 2020, that met the abovementioned criteria were included in the analysis. From them, eight corresponded to observational studies and three to interventional studies. Eight studies included students and the other three included healthcare professionals in their study samples. A negative correlation between empathy and loneliness was found in four studies. Furthermore, loneliness in the family environment was described as a negative predictor of empathy towards patients. Training programs in empathic skills and group accompaniment proved not only effective in the improvement of empathy in students, but also in the reduction of loneliness. These findings confirm a close relationship between clinical empathy and loneliness. They also show that the improvement in empathic skills not only has a positive effect on the professional ethical behavior towards patients, but it also helps improving the professional's well-being by reducing loneliness.

A 77-year-old woman with follicular thyroid cancer underwent total thyroidectomy and subsequent Iodine-131 remnant ablation. She had a history of a wide tenosynovial giant cell tumor (TGCT) of the right wrist and hand that had been resected thirteen years ago. Post-therapeutic scintigraphy and single photon emission computed tomography showed mild uptake on the distal right forearm, wrist and hand. Magnetic resonance imaging and posterior histopathology confirmed a relapse of TGCT. No radioiodine adverse effects were reported after a one-year follow-up. As far as we know, this report is the first in the literature to a TGCT visualized on post-therapy radioiodine scan., Competing Interests: Conflict of Interest: No conflict of interest was declared by the authors., (©Copyright 2022 by Turkish Society of Nuclear Medicine, Molecular Imaging and Radionuclide Therapy published by Galenos Yayınevi.)

The objective of the present paper was to review the clinical application of [ 18 F]FDG PET/CT in follicular lymphoma (FL). Once it was clear that, despite it is characterized as indolent, this type of lymphoma usually shows a high [ 18 F]FDG avidity, PET/CT became more important and it's now considered the standard technique in staging, re-staging and response evaluation. Many studies have shown its impact on the management of patients (as it can change the stage in a significant proportion of cases and lead to treatment modifications), its superiority over CT (mainly because it's able to distinguish fibrosis in residual masses from viable tumor) and its prognostic value. The latter was initially associated only to the degree of metabolic response, which has proved to be a strong and independent predictive factor in terms of disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS). Thus, a negative PET/CT scan could be considered a guarantee in high-tumor-burden follicular lymphoma patients. However, semiquantitative parameters such as metabolic tumor volume or total lesion glycolysis, may also provide useful information and help us to identify patients with poor prognosis, guiding a risk-adjusted management and follow-up., (Copyright © 2022 Sociedad Española de Medicina Nuclear e Imagen Molecular. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)

Prostate cancer (PC) is the most common tumor in men in the West and the fifth leading cause of cancer-related death. The use of PSMA radioligands has represented an important advance both in its diagnosis, through PET molecular imaging, and in its treatment in advanced stages of the disease. This article reviews the contribution of PET studies with PSMA radioligands in initial staging, in tumor detection in biochemical recurrence (elevation of PSA) after treatment with curative intent, and in the more advanced stages of the disease (castration resistant PC or CRPC). The contribution of PSMA radioligand therapy (PSMA-RLT) in CRPC patients who progress to standard therapy is also analyzed., (Copyright © 2021 Sociedad Española de Medicina Nuclear e Imagen Molecular. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)

The detection of pulmonary nodules has increased in recent decades due to the introduction of lung cancer screening programs and the massively use of routine chest computed tomography in patients with malignant neoplasms. Percutaneous biopsy of these nodules does not always characterize them, so sometimes a surgical biopsy is necessary, which often requires a presurgical localization. The radioguided occult lesion localization (ROLL) described for breast lesions was first applied in the resection of pulmonary nodules in 2000, becoming an alternative to other presurgical localization techniques such as hook-wire. The technique provides high detection rate with minimal morbidity, enhancing multidisciplinary work with specialists in Radiology and Chest Surgery. The present paper describes the different pre-surgical localization techniques currently available, the methodological procedure of the ROLL technique and the collected results in 20 years of experience., (Copyright © 2020 Sociedad Española de Medicina Nuclear e Imagen Molecular. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)

Background: Recently, evidence has accumulated that demonstrates the potential for future applications of radiomics in many clinical settings, including thoracic oncology. Methodological reasons for the immaturity of image mining (radiomics and artificial intelligence-based) studies have been identified. However, data on the influence of the composition of the research team on the quality of investigations in radiomics are lacking., Aim: This review aims to evaluate the interdisciplinarity within studies on radiomics in thoracic oncology in order to assess its influence on the quality of research (QUADAS-2 score) in the image mining field., Methods: We considered for inclusion radiomics investigations with objectives relating to clinical practice in thoracic oncology. Subsequently, we interviewed the corresponding authors. The field of expertise and/or educational degree was then used to assess interdisciplinarity. Subsequently, all studies were evaluated applying the QUADAS-2 score and assigned to a research phase from 0 to IV., Results: Overall, 27 studies were included. The study quality according to the QUADAS-2 score was low (score ≤5) in 8, moderate (=6) in 12, and high (≥7) in 7 papers. An interdisciplinary team (at least 3 different expertise categories) was involved in half of the papers without any type of validation and in all papers with independent validation. Clinicians were not involved in phase 0 studies while they contributed to all papers classified as phase I and to 4/5 papers classified as phase II with independent validation., Conclusions: The composition of the research team influences the quality of investigations in radiomics. Also, growth in interdisciplinarity appears to reflect research development from the early phase to a more mature, clinically oriented stage of investigation., (Copyright © 2020 Sociedad Española de Medicina Nuclear e Imagen Molecular. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)

Background: ECCO Essential Requirements for Quality Cancer Care (ERQCC) are written by experts representing all disciplines involved in cancer care in Europe. They give oncology teams, patients, policymakers and managers an overview of essential care throughout the patient journey., Prostate Cancer: Prostate cancer is the second most common male cancer and has a wide variation in outcomes in Europe. It has complex diagnosis and treatment challenges, and is a major healthcare burden. Care must only be a carried out in prostate/urology cancer units or centres that have a core multidisciplinary team (MDT) and an extended team of health professionals. Such units are far from universal in European countries. To meet European aspirations for comprehensive cancer control, healthcare organisations must consider the requirements in this paper, paying particular attention to multidisciplinarity and patient-centred pathways from diagnosis, to treatment, to survivorship., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare no conflicts of interest for this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: Recently new mobile systems for dispensing positron emitters have been produced, designed to guarantee dispensing cycles in an aseptic environment. The aim of the present work was to assess the advantage of one of these systems in radiation protection of operators in clinical settings., Methods: Recently, in our centre the new self-dispensing system named KARL 100 by Tema Sinergie was adopted for 18 F-FDG radiopharmaceuticals. The system is associated with an automatic Rad-inject infuser. The system that was previously used was a fixed isolator NMC DSI (Tema Sinergie), equipped with a μDDS-An activity fractioning system, together with a pneumatic post for the syringe delivery. The dosimetric evaluations on both systems were carried out through environmental measurements with an ionisation chamber and with the use of personal dosimeters., Results: The operations of preparation and administration of 18 F-FDG dose to the patient, with the use of Karl 100  + RadInject, involve exposures much lower than those obtained by the fixed isolator. The average body exposure of the technician was reduced by 31%, and for the physician by 77%. On the extremities, the equivalent dose to the hands of the technician was reduced by 78%, and for the physician by 96%. Also the additional dosimeters worn by the technician confirmed the estimated environmental assessments., Conclusions: The exposures of the working personnel were significantly reduced with the introduction of the new KARL 100 system.

Colorectal cancer is the third most frequent cancer worldwide. Although its incidence is increasing, mainly in those aged under50, mortality has decreased by 50% in the more developed countries, principally due to the adoption of new practices in prevention, diagnosis and treatment. In particular, the various diagnostic imaging modalities allow improved therapeutic decision-making, evaluation of the response and early detection of recurrence. The aim of this paper is to review the available scientific evidence on the value of positron emission tomography with 18 F-FDG ( 18 F-FDG PET/CT) in the colorectal cancer, with special emphasis on the indications of the guidelines and recommendations of the main international scientific associations regarding this imaging technique., (Copyright © 2019 Sociedad Española de Medicina Nuclear e Imagen Molecular. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)

Background: Inter-professional and interpersonal relationships in collaborative work environments can prove to be critical elements in healthcare practice. When implementers fail to understand the importance of a collaborative perspective, this can lead to communication problems which ultimately harm the users. Objectives: To improve the inter-professional collaborative work skills of Mexican students in their first year of medical and nursing degrees through the use of a training program geared toward development of interpersonal skills and interdisciplinary work. Methods: The sample was composed of 162 students (62 males and 99 females) from the School of Healthcare Sciences of the Autonomous University of Coahuila, Mexico. The main measures used were the Jefferson Scale of Empathy (JSE); the Jefferson Scale of Attitudes toward Inter-Professional Collaborative Work between Medical and Nursing Professionals (JSAPNC); and the Jefferson Scale of Lifelong Learning (JeffSPLL). The entire sample was divided into two groups (experimental and control groups). Both groups attended an extra-curricular program using a coaching methodology. In the first case the topic focused on attitudes toward inter-professional collaborative work. In the second case, the program focused on addiction. Both programs ran for 4 months. Psychometric instruments were applied at the beginning and at the end of both programs. After analyzing the reliability of the instruments, an ANOVA test was performed. Results: The control group of medical students showed a deterioration in the development of collaborative work skills ( p < 0.01), whereas in the experimental group this deterioration was not present. In the experimental group of nursing students, a significant increase in the development of collaborative work skills ( p < 0.05) was observed. The differences were clearly due to the professional area of study ( p < 0.001). Conclusion: There are differences in collaborative work skill development among different professional areas. These differences can be reduced through the implementation of a program aimed at developing collaborative work and interpersonal skills in the early stages of training.

Cervical cancer is the second most common gynecological cancer worldwide. In locally advanced cervical cancer, 18 F-FDG PET/CT has become important in the initial staging, particularly in the detection of nodal and distant metastasis, aspects with treatment implications and prognostic value. The aims of this study were to review the role of 18 F-FDG PET/CT in uterine cervical cancer, according to the guidelines of the main scientific institutions (FIGO, NCCN, SEGO, SEOM, ESGO, and ESMO) and its diagnostic accuracy compared to conventional radiological techniques, as well as to review the acquisition protocol and its utility in radiotherapy planning, response assessment and detection of recurrence., (Copyright © 2018 Sociedad Española de Medicina Nuclear e Imagen Molecular. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)

Bone metastatic disease is the main cause of morbidity / mortality in patients with prostate cancer, presenting frequently as bone pain, pathological fractures or spinal cord compression, which requires early and timely therapy. Although, for the moment, the therapeutic window for its use has not been definitively established, radium-223 ( 223 Ra), an alpha particle emitter, has proved to be an effective therapeutic tool, pre or post-chemotherapy, in patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer with symptomatic bone metastases and absence of visceral metastases, significantly modifying the prognosis of the disease. It is therefore imperative to define the ideal scenarios and the correct protocol for the use of this therapy and thus offer the greatest possible clinical benefit to the patient., (Copyright © 2018 Sociedad Española de Medicina Nuclear e Imagen Molecular. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)

Imaging in oncology is an essential tool for patient management but its potential is being profoundly underutilized. Each of the techniques used in the diagnostic process also conveys functional information that can be relevant in treatment decision making. New imaging algorithms and techniques enhance our knowledge about the phenotype of the tumor and its potential response to different therapies. Functional imaging can be defined as the one that provides information beyond the purely morphological data, and include all the techniques that make it possible to measure specific physiological functions of the tumor, whereas molecular imaging would include techniques that allow us to measure metabolic changes. Functional and molecular techniques included in this document are based on multi-detector computed tomography (CT), 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (18F-FDG PET), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and hybrid equipments, integrating PET with CT (PET/CT) or MRI (PET-MRI). Lung cancer is one of the most frequent and deadly tumors although survival is increasing thanks to advances in diagnostic methods and new treatments. This increased survival poises challenges in terms of proper follow-up and definitions of response and progression, as exemplified by immune therapy-related pseudoprogression. In this consensus document, the use of functional and molecular imaging techniques will be addressed to exploit their current potential and explore future applications in the diagnosis, evaluation of response and detection of recurrence of advanced NSCLC., (Copyright © 2018 SERAM. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)

The above article which was published in Volume 44/ Issue 12 has incorrect page numbers. Instead of 1-3, it should have been 2137-2139.

Background: ECCO essential requirements for quality cancer care (ERQCC) are checklists and explanations of organisation and actions that are necessary to give high-quality care to patients who have a specific type of cancer. They are written by European experts representing all disciplines involved in cancer care. ERQCC papers give oncology teams, patients, policymakers and managers an overview of the elements needed in any healthcare system to provide high quality of care throughout the patient journey. References are made to clinical guidelines and other resources where appropriate, and the focus is on care in Europe., Oesophageal and Gastric: ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENTS FOR QUALITY CARE: CONCLUSION: Taken together, the information presented in this paper provides a comprehensive description of the essential requirements for establishing a high-quality OG cancer service. The ERQCC expert group is aware that it is not possible to propose a 'one size fits all' system for all countries, but urges that access to multidisciplinary units or centres must be guaranteed for all those with OG cancer., (Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: ECCO essential requirements for quality cancer care (ERQCC) are explanations and descriptions of challenges, organisation and actions that are necessary to give high-quality care to patients who have a specific type of cancer. They are written by European experts representing all disciplines involved in cancer care. ERQCC papers give oncology teams, patients, policymakers and managers an overview of the elements needed in any healthcare system to provide high quality of care throughout the patient journey. References are made to clinical guidelines and other resources where appropriate, and the focus is on care in Europe., Melanoma: ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENTS FOR QUALITY CARE: CONCLUSION: Taken together, the information presented in this paper provides a comprehensive description of the essential requirements for establishing a high-quality service for melanoma. The ERQCC expert group is aware that it is not possible to propose a 'one size fits all' system for all countries, but urges that access to multidisciplinary teams and specialised treatments is guaranteed to all patients with melanoma., (Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Empathy in the context of patient care is defined as a predominantly cognitive attribute that involves an understanding of the patient's experiences, concerns, and perspectives, combined with a capacity to communicate this understanding and an intention to help. In medical education, it is recognized that empathy can be improved by interventional approaches. In this sense, a semiotic-based curriculum could be an important didactic tool for improving medical empathy. The main purpose of this study was to determine if in medical schools where a semiotic-based curriculum is offered, the empathetic orientation of medical students improves as a consequence of the acquisition and development of students' communication skills that are required in clinician-patient encounters. Design: This quasi-experimental study was conducted in three medical schools of the Dominican Republic that offer three different medical curricula: (i) a theoretical and practical semiotic-based curriculum; (ii) a theoretical semiotic-based curriculum; and (iii) a curriculum without semiotic courses. The Jefferson scale of empathy was administered in two different moments to students enrolled in pre-clinical cycles of those institutions. Data was subjected to comparative statistical analysis and logistic regression analysis. Results: The study included 165 students (55 male and 110 female). Comparison analysis showed statistically significant differences in the development of empathy among groups ( p < 0.001). Logistic regression confirmed that gender, age, and a semiotic-based curriculum contributed toward the enhancement of empathy. Conclusion: These findings demonstrate the importance of medical semiotics as a didactic teaching method for improving beginners' empathetic orientation in patients' care.