IAEA/RCA Regional Training Course (RTC) on Sentinel Lymphnode Detection with Nuclear Medicine Techniques will be held from 24-28 April 2006 in Beijing, China. The primary objective of this RTC is to train nuclear medicine specialists from RCA Member States in sentinel lymphnode diction for clinical management of cancer patients with breast cancer etc. so that to provide qualified nuclear oncological service to the patients.

In Asia, lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer mortality among men while breast cancer in women. Hence, RCA has been focusing on the improvement of clinical management of patients with lung and breast cancers in addition to the malignant lymphnode, by strengthening nuclear oncology.

It is noted that sentinel lymphnode biopsy is now the practice of choice for the management of many patients with breast cancer etc. A significant component of sentinel node procedure with nuclear medicine technique is a detection and localization protocol that involves radiotracer methodologies, including radiopharmaceutical administration, pre-operative nuclear medicine imaging, and intra-operative gamma counting.

To this effect, most of the RCA Member States wish to introduce such technologies for improving clinical management of patients with breast cancer etc. The current RCA project 'Tumor Imaging using Radioisotopes' aims at assisting the RCA Member States to improve the quality of nuclear oncological services.

For further contact: Dr Chen Shengzu of Cancer Hospital, CAMS in Beijing
at chensszz@sina.com