Global agreement signed to standardise, harmonise PET imaging for clinical trials and collaboration

A new international agreement will help ensure that advanced imaging data collected from PET/CT and PET/MR in clinical trials can be reliably compared – making it easier for researchers to collaborate globally and for new discoveries to translate into clinical care.

Building on a credentialling program established in Australia through ARTnet, and supported by activities within NIF’s Human Molecular Imaging Network, the MOU brings together the three major nuclear medicine clinical trials organisations:

• Australasian Radiopharmaceutical Trials Network (ARTnet)
• SNMMI Clinical Trials Network (SNMMI-CTN)
• European Association of Nuclear Medicine Forschungs GmbH (EARL).

The agreement establishes a unified framework for credentialling PET/CT and PET/MR imaging systems used in clinical trials to standardise and harmonise the quantitative data.

Clinical trials – such as those for oncology and neurology – increasingly rely on quantitative imaging data obtained across multiple clinical trial sites. Collected on different scanners, there is potential for variability in performance.

To address this, a camera credentialling program is essential to ensure comparability of PET scans across different sites. This has become increasingly important over the last decade with the emergence of new PET imaging technology and with more clinical trials using nuclear medicine.

According to Prof Francis, Scientific Chair of ARTnet, establishing the ARTnet camera credentialling program over the last 10 years has been instrumental in supporting clinical trial capabilities in Australia.

“In the past, each trial often required its own phantom scanning procedures and data upload process, which is time-consuming and leads to duplication and inefficiency for sites,” Prof Francis said.

In addition, the different trials organisations used different phantoms and different procedures to assess them.

Camera validation through a program such as ARTnet enables imaging sites to be credentialled in advance – meaning scanners are already validated and ready to participate in clinical trials, removing some of the barriers to participating.

This reduces the need for repeated testing and minimises downtime on scanners that would otherwise be used for patient imaging. It also ensures that imaging data collected across different sites, on different systems, for a range of isotopes, can be directly compared.

It also saves money from not requiring repeated tests of the same radioisotope, saves radiation exposure to staff performing the testing, and brings the work-up process for a trial to a more rapid conclusion.

The MOU is the result of collaboration among many researchers and organisations, including longstanding relationships within the global nuclear medicine community:

• ARTnet, a Research Partner of NIF
• the Australian and New Zealand Society of Nuclear Medicine (ANZSNM) and the Australiasian Association of Nuclear Medicine Specialists (AANMS), the joint “parents” of ARTnet
• Prof Roslyn Francis, as foundation Scientific Chair of ARTnet
• Prof Dale Bailey, a University of Sydney physics professor in medical imaging science, who lead the technical elements of credentialling systems used by each organisation
• Prof Andrew Scott AM, Node Director of the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute and La Trobe University, who leads the NIF HMI Network and who developed many international relationships that enabled the agreement
• NIF’s Human Molecular Imaging Network.

“There are a number of different PET systems embedded in clinical research across the NIF network, including long axial field of view/total body PET, digital PET and standard PET systems,” Prof Francis said.

“Ensuring comparability across all PET imaging systems will increase the quality of data and ensure real-world translation of research into clinical care, making this a priority initiative for NIF and ARTnet.”

“Australia has been a global leader in radiopharmaceutical research through collaborative clinical trials which have been internationally impactful. This MOU strengthens opportunities to collaborate with our international partners, which is exciting for our future,” she said.

For Australian researchers, the MOU for camera credentialling will make it easier to participate in international trials – and to lead them. Australian sites already accredited by ARTnet will not require additional camera credentialling.

The system also works in reverse. Australian investigators can design studies locally and collaborate with overseas partners with comparable camera accreditation through SNMMI-CTN or EARL, as all three trials organisations will use the same agreed testing methodologies.

Prof Francis cites rapid growth in the radiopharmaceutical industry driven by advances in personalised therapy and theranostics, with the aim of streamlining national and international high-quality clinical trials with radiopharmaceuticals.

By involving multiple clinical trial sites across different countries, clinicians can recruit larger patient cohorts, faster, and generate more robust and impactful clinical data.

“The MOU makes this possible, and ultimately will fast-track research leading to better care for patients,” Prof Francis said.

Standardised scanner credentialling is only one piece of a much larger research ecosystem.

Once imaging data are collected in clinical trials, it becomes an invaluable resource for further analysis and discovery.

NIF’s Data Collections and Partnerships program supports these efforts.

Ensuring scans are acquired using consistent standards allows them to be aggregated in imaging data repositories alongside clinical information, creating powerful datasets for research.

By linking high-quality imaging, collaborative trial networks and shared data infrastructure, the new framework strengthens the foundations of global imaging research.

Together, these efforts will help ensure that discoveries made in clinical trials can move more quickly from research settings into everyday patient care.