Nuclear Medicine

The Department of Nuclear Medicine of Renji Hospital was established in 1958. It is a research-oriented clinical specialty integrating imaging diagnosis, functional testing, radionuclide therapy, in vitro analysis, and the research and production of new drugs. It is among the first group in China authorized to confer master’s and doctoral degrees and operate a postdoctoral research station in the specialty of imaging medicine and nuclear medicine; the affiliated department of the Institute of Clinical Nuclear Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine; the Clinical Pharmacology Base of the Drug Research Institute of Renji Hospital (Nuclear Medicine); a licensed laboratory for radiopharmaceuticals (Class IV); a “Key Discipline” designated by the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission; a “First-Class Discipline” in Shanghai; a “Plateau Discipline” in Shanghai; and a National Clinical Key Specialty in Medical Imaging. For many consecutive years, it has ranked among the top ten nationally in the Fudan Hospital Specialty Reputation Rankings, and for three consecutive years it has ranked first among nuclear medicine specialties in the Competitiveness Ranking of Grade A Tertiary Hospitals in Shanghai. It was among the first institutions in China to introduce PET/CT imaging, completing more than 10,000 high-quality PET/CT examinations annually; in 2019, it obtained a license for PET/MR configuration; in 2020, it established an innovative molecular imaging research and development center integrating industry, academia, research, and medicine—the “Renji–United Imaging Molecular Imaging Research and Development Center”; from 2020 to 2021, it successively introduced globally leading nuclear medicine imaging equipment, including panoramic dynamic Total-body PET/CT and ultra-high-definition TOF PET/MR. In collaboration with clinical departments, it has developed PET imaging technologies using a variety of novel positron molecular probes, including 68Ga-PSMA, 68Ga-DOTATATE, 68Ga-FAPI, 11C-acetate, 11C-choline, 11C-methionine, 11C-CFT, 18F-AV133, 18F-AV45, 18F-PI2620, 18F-PBR06, and 18F-NaF, for the clinical diagnosis and research of tumors and diseases of the nervous system; it undertakes multiple domestic and international multicenter clinical trials and possesses a high level of capability in the application and translational development of new molecular imaging technologies. More than 20 types of routine SPECT clinical examinations are performed, including dynamic renal imaging, myocardial perfusion imaging (rest + stress), whole-body bone imaging, and pulmonary ventilation–perfusion imaging; in addition, basic research and clinical translation of imaging agents such as 99mTc-PYP and 99mTc-RGD are also conducted. The department has a standardized radiation-protection ward for radionuclide therapy, equipped with an automatic drug dispensing and remote administration system, and performs treatment procedures including 131I therapy for hyperthyroidism and differentiated thyroid cancer, 89Sr and 223Ra therapy for cancers with bone metastases, and 125I seed implantation. The development of the discipline continues to advance, with successive funding from national-level projects, including the National Key Research and Development Program, and multiple high-quality academic papers published in top medical imaging journals; talent development has also achieved notable results, with multiple staff members receiving funding through talent programs such as the Shanghai Youth Science and Technology Enlightenment Program, the “Yiyuan New Star” Young Talent Development Funding Program, and the Sail Plan.