New PET MRI scanner is first of its kind in UK

UCLH/UCL clinicians and researchers have been celebrating the first output from the new BRC-funded PET MRI scanner.

Simultaneous PET/MR

Simultaneous PET/MR. Left: Patient set up. Right: Image acquisition set up.


The scanner, which is the first of its kind in the UK, is now open to external referrals. The new PET MRI scanner, which was installed in the new Cancer Centre at UCLH last year, is the latest advance in nuclear medicine and is already being used for research by UCL, UCLH and their collaborators. It has been used for cancer, cardiac and neurology studies and the first patient data demonstrating disease were obtained this March

The 6M GMP scanner has unique power and potential to unravel the pathological phenotype of the individual patient. Therapy response assessment, signalling pathways and protein deposition, such as amyloid and tau can be imaged, inflammation assessed and atheroma assessed. Hypoxia, proliferation, amino acid turnover, receptor expression, GLUT expression inter alia, all fall within the ability of PET MRI.

Referrers should contact Hansa Jadeja on hansa.jadeja@uclh.nhs.uk