Michael Hofman, Nuclear Medicine Physician at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, shared a post on X:
” ‘First patient dosed.’
Great. So what was the dose?
In theranostics, “dosed” isn’t a press-release verb – it’s a number you already have. If you’ve treated your first patient, you’re sitting on the pre-therapy PET/CT and post-therapy SPECT/CT.
So skip the milestone celebration and give us what actually matters.
- Tumour dose (Gy)
- Normal organ doses (Gy)
Because radiation delivery to the tumour is the whole game. No dose, no response – it’s mechanistic, not magical. An radiopharmaceutical that can’t get meaningful Gy into tumour has no chance of helping the patient in front of you.
That differentiates theranostics from conventional drug development: we can see futility early. Pre-therapy PET tells us if the target lights up (SUV). Post-therapy dosimetry tells us if the radiation stuck (Gy). Every “first patient dosed” headline is sitting on precisely this data – and choosing not to show it.
So show us.
Patients don’t benefit from a first dose. They benefit from enough dose.”
Other articles featuring Michael Hofman on OncoDaily.