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The Jules Bordet Institute opens its Radiotheranostics Centre of Excellence

Press release (28/04/2022) 

The Jules Bordet Institute opens its Radiotheranostics Centre of Excellence

A new era in treating and diagnosing patients in Nuclear Medicine

28 April 2022 – Wednesday 27 April 2022, the Jules Bordet Institute officially opened its "Radiotheranostics Centre of Excellence" in its Department of Nuclear Medicine. An innovative form of targeted drug therapy in fighting cancer, radiotheranostics is today a priority axis in cancer research. A development made possible thanks to the new building, inaugurated last November with new infrastructures and state-of-the-art equipment, but also thanks to the support of the Jules Bordet Association.

médecine nucléaire

Radiotheranostics, the future of nuclear medicine
In recent years, nuclear medicine has undergone a major revolution with the introduction of a new treatment method in the fight against cancer: radiotheranostics, a combination of (molecular) diagnostics and (radionuclide) therapy. Radiotheranostics is an innovative form of targeted drug therapy in fighting cancer, supplementing treatments such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy and immunotherapy. The action mechanism of this new anti-cancer therapy is unique and very much a part of the modern paradigm of precision oncology. It uses tracers or vectors (small molecules, peptides or antibodies) that are specific to the tumour, to which a radioactive isotope is coupled. Following intravenous administration, these (radiopharmaceutical) molecules accumulate specifically at all the tumour sites and deliver a radiation dose that destroys the cancer cells.

The Department of Nuclear Medicine, Radiotheranostics Centre of Excellence in Belgium
The Jules Bordet Institute's Radiotheranostics Centre of Excellence has all the infrastructure and technologies needed to offer its patients this treatment method in optimal conditions: 5 hospital isolation rooms for patients undergoing treatment, equipped to protect the environment from radioactive contamination; a laboratory for the production of radiomarked pharmaceutical products that meets the highest quality demands (GMP standards); a fully digital latest generation SPECT/CT camera to visualise the location of the radiopharmaceutical products administered to the patient's body after the therapy and to calculate the radiation doses. Such a camera has been installed in just 5 centres worldwide; an additional PET/CT digital camera will serve exclusively research purposes.

A development made possible thanks to a new building and major investments
During the 80 years of its existence, the Jules Bordet Institute has always played a leading role in research and development for new methods of diagnosis and treatment in the fight against cancer. The Institute's recent move (November 2021) to the ULB university campus in Anderlecht and a brand new building covering 80,000 m² was the trigger for this major development made possible through the new modern infrastructures available to the teams. For more than 50 years the Institute's biggest private sector donor, the Jules Bordet Association has already given 18 million euros for research activities at the new hospital.

Press kit
A complete press kit on the Radiotheranostics Centre of Excellence is available at the Jules Bordet Institute website : see below

Press Contacts (Jules Bordet Institute)

  • Alexandra Cazan