Curriculum
ICPO Academy participants have the opportunity to acquire fundamental knowledge and expertise in Radiomolecular Precision Oncology. Each Teaching Unit takes about 45 minutes to complete. Each Teaching Unit contains 3 teaching videos, each about 10 minutes long, and may offer additional teaching content such videos and links to external videos, animations, interviews and further readings.
After completing each Teaching Unit, the participant will take a multiple-choice test to assess whether the key learning points have been acquired. To successfully complete a teaching unit, 80% of the questions must be answered correctly. Furthermore, the teaching units offer additional and optional introductions of the lecturers, interludes in form of interviews and videos as well as links to external support material.
Radiomolecular Precision Oncology (RPO) Pillar
This pillar covers medical and scientific content targeting physicians and also complementing content of the other four pillars.
Firstly, the Neuroendocrine tumor teaching units allow to delve into the epidemiology and historical evolution of these tumours, explore their classification, and examine their pathological basis. The participant will then understand the clinical presentation and role of molecular imaging techniques such as PET/CT, as well as to learn about treatment response evaluation to peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT) using SPECT/CT and the significance of biomarkers.
Secondly, in the prostate cancer teaching units, the participant will explore the epidemiology and historical evolution of the disease, examine its tumour classification, and focus on pathology and genomics. This will allow to gain insights into molecular imaging techniques, with a specific focus on PSMA PET/CT, including potential pitfalls, as well as to understand treatment response evaluation to PRRT using SPECT/CT and the significance of PSA as a tumour marker. Systemic therapy guidelines and basic principles of PRRT will be covered for both cancer types above.
Finally, radioiodine therapy and its application in thyroid cancer will be introduced.
See here the full list of lectures in RPO
Neuroendocrine Tumors
| # | Name of Teaching Unit | Lecturer |
| 1000 | Epidemiology and historical evolution, and tumor classification | Dr. Nicola Fazio |
| 1010 | Pathological bases of Neuroendocrine Neoplasms | Dr. Massimo Milione |
| 1020 | Clinical Presentation | Prof. Dr. Christos Toumpanakis |
| 1030 | Molecular Imaging – SSTR PET/CT | Prof. Dr. Vikas Prasad |
| 1040 | Metabolic Imaging – FDG PET | Prof. Valentina Ambrosini |
| 1050 | Treatment response evaluation to PRLT with SPECT/CT in Neuroendocrine Tumors | Dr. Heying Duan |
| 1060 | Biomarkers (CgA, NETest / PPQ) | Prof. Dr. Andrea Frilling |
| 1070 | Systemic Therapy for GEP-NETs –Guidelines and Recommendations | Dr. Angela Lamarca |
| 1080 | Basic Principles of PRRT | Prof. Dr. Vikas Prasad |
Prostate Cancer
| # | Name of Teaching Unit | Lecturer |
| 1120 | Epidemiology and historical evolution, and tumor classification | Dr. Lucas Kastner |
| 1130 | Pathology and Genomics | Assist. Prof. Francesca Khani |
| 1140 | Clinical Presentation | Assist. Prof. Jacob Orme |
| 1150 | Molecular Imaging – PSMA PET/CT | Dr. Ashwin Singh Parihar |
| 1151 | Pitfalls in PSMA PET Imaging | Prof. Dr. Matthias Eiber |
| 1160 | Treatment Response Evaluation to PRLT with SPECT/CT in Prostate Cancer | Assist. Prof. Hong Song |
| 1210 | PSA as Tumor Marker | Dr. Daniel Childs |
| 1220 | Systemic therapy for Prostate Cancer – Treatment guidelines and recommendations | Prof. Dr. Oliver Sartor |
| 1230 | Basic Principles of PRLT | Priv.-Doz. Dr. Robert Seifert |
Other Tumor Entities
| # | Name of Teaching Unit | Lecturer |
| 1240 | Radioiodine Therapy (Thyroid cancer, introduction) | Assist. Prof. Vikas Prasad |
Medical Physics (MP) Pillar
This pillar explores diverse topics in medical imaging, nuclear medicine and Theranostics targeting an audience of physicists thereby complementing the content of other pillars. Participants may expect to understand SPECT/CT and PET/CT imaging principles, radiobiology and radiotherapy fundamentals, as well as learn about essential topics such as activity measurements, quality control, radiation safety, patient dosimetry and clinical dosimetry and discover strategies to address imaging artifacts and optimize protocols. In summary, participants will appreciate the crucial role of medical physicists in Radiomolecular Precision Oncology.
See here the full list of lectures in MP
| # | Name of Teaching Unit | Lecturer |
| 2000 | Medical imaging, Nuclear medicine and theranostics – A primer | Prof. Dr. Elif Hindie |
| 2010 | Radioisotopes and Transformation | Prof. Dr. Frank Rösch |
| 2020 | SPECT(/CT) Imaging – Basics | Dr. John Dickson |
| 2030 | PET(/CT) Imaging – Basics | Prof. Dr. Thomas Beyer |
| 2040 | Radiobiology | Dr. Yaser Gholami |
| 2050 | Radiotherapy – Basics | Dr. Andreas Renner Assist. Prof. Nicole Nesvacil Dr. Petra Trnkova |
| 2060 | Activity Measurements | Dr. Ana Denis-Bacelar |
| 2070 | Quality Control | Ing. Ivo Rausch, PhD |
| 2080 | Radiation Safety | Dr. Søren Holm |
| 2090 | Basic Patient Dosimetry | Dr. Ana Denis-Bacelar |
| 2100 | Quantitative Imaging for Dosimetry: SPECT | Dr. Kathy Willowson |
| 2110 | Quantitative Imaging for Dosimetry: PET | Prof. Dr. Dale Bailey |
| 2120 | Clinical Dosimetry (Dx and Th) – Part 1 | Dr. Manuel Bardiès |
| 2130 | Clinical Dosimetry (Dx and Th) – Part 2 | Dr. Manuel Bardiès |
| 2140 | Imaging Artifacts and Optimized Protocols 1 | Prof. Dr. Bernhard Sattler |
| 2150 | Imaging Artifacts and Optimized Protocols 2 | Prof. Dr. Bernhard Sattler |
| 2160 | PACS, Data Handling 1 | Dr. Markus Diemling |
| 2170 | Clinical Routine and Ethics | Priv.-Doz. Dr. Harun Ilhan |
| 2180 | Inter-Domain Communication in Clinical Routine | Roy Sheppard |
| 2190 | The Medical Physicists |
Radiochemistry (RC) Pillar
Addressing chemists and being a great complement to other pillars, this pillar is a strong primer on radiochemistry and nuclear chemistry, exploring the composition of atomic nuclei as a mixture of nucleons, as well as the structure and characteristics of stable and unstable atomic nuclei. Participants will understand the rationale of unstable atom nuclei and the philosophy of nuclear transformation pathways and kinetics. This pillar gives an opportunity to delve into the various emissions specific to individual transformation pathways, in particular relevant to Theranostics. Participants will finally become familiar with radionuclide production processes at nuclear reactors, cyclotrons and generators.
See here the full list of lectures in RC
| # | Name of Teaching Unit | Lecturer |
| 3000 | Radiochemistry / Nuclear Chemistry – A Primer | Prof. Dr. Frank Rösch |
| 3010 | The Stable Atomic Nucleus | Prof. Dr. Frank Rösch |
| 3020 | The Atomic Nucleus: a Mixture of Nucleons | Prof. Dr. Frank Rösch |
| 3030 | The Atomic Nucleus – Nucleon Shells | Prof. Dr. Frank Rösch |
| 3040 | The Rational of Transformation | Prof. Dr. Frank Rösch |
| 3050 | Transformation Kinetics | Prof. Dr. Frank Rösch |
| 3060 | The Rational of Beta Minus Transformation | Prof. Dr. Frank Rösch |
| 3070 | Beta Plus Transformation & Elementary Particles | Prof. Dr. Frank Rösch |
| 3080 | Excited Nuclear States | Prof. Dr. Frank Rösch |
| 3090 | The Rational of Alpha Transformation | Prof. Dr. Frank Rösch |
| 3100 | Secondary Transformations | Prof. Dr. Frank Rösch |
| 3120 | Post-effects & the Origin of 511 keV Annihilation Photons | Prof. Dr. Frank Rösch |
| 3130 | The Emissions Relevant to Theranostics | Prof. Dr. Frank Rösch Ing. Ivo Rausch, PhD |
| 3140 | Radionuclide Production – A Primer | Prof. Dr. Frank Rösch |
| 3150 | Radionuclide Production Mechanisms | Prof. Dr. Frank Rösch |
| 3160 | Radionuclide Production at Nuclear Reactors | Prof. Dr. Frank Rösch |
| 3170 | Radionuclide Production at Cyclotrons | Prof. Dr. Frank Rösch |
| 3180 | Radionuclide Production via Radionuclide Generators | Prof. Dr. Frank Rösch |
Nursing and Patient Management (NP)Pillar
This pillar offers nurses and in general clinicians interacting with patients to acquire basic knowledge and essential skills to effectively support patients in Radiomolecular Precision Oncology. Indeed, nursing plays a crucial role in patient care, thus learning effective patient communication strategies to address their decisions, answer their questions and meet their needs is a major component of the Academy for Theranostics. Moreover, this pillar content explores various therapy video samples to enhance the understanding of procedures and protocols.
See here the full list of lectures in NP
| # | Name of Teaching Unit | Lecturer |
| Nursing – Basic Knowledge | Linda Gardner | |
| Therapy Information – Therapy Video Samples | Linda Gardner | |
| Patient Communication – Patient Decisions, Questions and Communication | Josh Mailman |