Post-Doctoral Certificate Course (PDCC) in Nuclear Oncology & Theranostics

1. Basic Science aspects of Nuclear Medicine Imaging
2. Nuclear imaging techniques in Oncology: SPECT, SPECTCT, PETCT and PETMR
3. Characteristics of Therapeutic radionuclides and radiopharmaceuticals,
4. Methods of Production of radionuclides, quality control measures of radiopharmaceuticals
5. Tracer Kinetic Models, compartmental analysis and software-based dose estimates
6. Principles of Internal Dosimetry: Calculation of the radiation dose from internally
   administered radionuclide
7. Radiobiology and Health physics
8. Radiation transport
9. Radiation protection in diagnostic and therapeutic set up: Design of diagnostic lab and Isolation ward as per the norms of AERB, Principles of waste management and decontamination and various other mandatory requirements for the use of radionuclides.
10. Principles of Radionuclide administration as Out Patient procedure and in patient procedures
11. Principles of Radionuclide administration as an In Patient procedure and its waste management
12. Nuclear Accidents: nuclear fallouts, either due to nuclear reactor accidents or due to war-time events, protection measures and preparedness, treatment at the time of over radiation exposure and dealing with long-term sequelae.
13. Research methodology. Good clinical Practice, Institutional ethics committee, regulatory process for research in clinical nuclear medicine.
14. Biostatistics for imaging
15. Evidence based Medicine in imaging and theranostics

1. NM imaging in various organ systems: Planar, SPECTCT, PETCT, PETMR
2. Imaging with 18F FDG, Non FDG tracers like Choline, DOPA, 131I MIBG, 68Ga DOTA NOC, PSMA, FAPI, 68Ga RGD, Exendin etc.
3. I 131 Therapy in Thyroid disorders; benign thyroid diseases (Graves’ disease, Toxic MNG, ATN), Differentiated thyroid cancer, counselling, follow up strategy and whole body I 131 scans.
4. National and international guidelines and regulations pertaining to therapeutic administration of radionuclides
5. Radionuclide therapy in Liver tumours, Prostate cancer, Neuroendocrine tumours, Neuroblastoma, Phaeochromocytoma and other malignancies
6. Procedures and management for I 131 MIBG, Y 90 (TARE), PRRT therapy
7. Bone pain palliation using various radionuclides such as Sm153, Sr89 etc.
   • Patient selection, response evaluation, toxicity identification and care.
   • Narcotics and drug
8. Radiosynovectomy – Intra-articular injections, patient selection, monitoring, post
    treatment support
9. Pain control with therapy
10. Radioimmunotherapy
    • 131I, 177Lu, 90Y based formulations.
    • Experience reported in literature
    • Patient selection, response evaluation and dosimetry, toxicity
11. Locoregional internal radiation therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma and others
    1. Planning a TARE procedure, executing the procedure with radiology and postop care
    2. Hepatopulmonary shunt evaluation and quantification prior to TARE
    3. Impact of TACE
    4. Radiopharmaceuticals for TARE
12. Radionuclide patches for treatment of cutaneous lesions/malignancies
13. Research agents in radionuclide therap

1. Updates on Instrumentation, Intraoperative probes, imaging – PET, SPECT, CT, MRI
2. New Development of Radiopharmaceuticals, Understanding formulations of various Radiopharmaceuticals used in routine and research therapy. Therapeutic procedures – Emphasis on safe delivery of Radiopharmaceuticals to intended site, confirming to regulatory principles.
3. Post processing techniques of CT, MR, PET & SPECT.
4. For aid of surgical planning, estimating dose and confirming dose delivery.
5. Quantitation techniques, RECIST, PERCIST, i-RECIST
6. Radiomics and Artificial intelligence techniques

1. Trans Arterial Radio Embolization & Sandwich Therapy between chemo/targeted therapy & Isotope based therapy. Patient preparation and post treatment patient care for first 24 hours. In day care unit, he will be exposed to patient care especially during infusion of antibodies and other chemotherapeutical agents.
2. Be able to perform pharmacological stress to study myocardial perfusion abnormalities and cerebral blood flow.
3. Evaluation of completion of RFA and other ablative procedures using 18F FDG or similar agents.
4. Ictal – Interictal study – cerebral blood flow dynamics using SPECT agents, cerebral imaging with SPECTCT and PETMR.
5. Pharmacological stress myocardial perfusion SPECT for major vascular / nonvascular surgeries
6. Stress Myocardial perfusion SPECT in Kawasaki disease / congenital heart disease patients post repair
7. Lung perfusion in patients with pulmonary artery stenosis, Tetrology of Fallot, congenital heart disease, emphysematous
8. Identify long term and short-term therapy related toxicities using nuclear medicine techniques.

1. Daily record/ log book of both diagnostic and therapeutic procedures undertaken has to be mentioned and verified by mentor
2. Postings with dates to be recorded in logbook
3. Participation certificate after attending educational conference/ s to be attached in logbook
4. This record will have to be successfully presented to the supervising consultant at the end of each block of the rotation and the record book has to be signed by the fellow and the supervising consultant. The log book will be submitted at the time of the annual assessment.

Theory – 2 papers: 100 marks each – 3 hrs duration per exam.
Practicals & Viva voce exam will be conducted at the end of the term as per the hospital
guidelines – total 100 marks.
Fellowship certificate will be issued to the fellows who successfully clear the exit
examination and should have atleast 1 original article and 1 case report published in scopus
indexed journals at the completion of term.