2024 Presidential Letter

Presidential Message 2024

Dear supporters and friends of WARMTH

As the new President of WARMTH, I am excited to serve the WARMTH community. I feel very humble: I could not believe this honor ever to happen, even when I was asked by two former WARMTH presidents in autumn 2021 in Tallinn, Estonia. They encouraged me to run for president-elect during our Past president (Mike Sathekge's term). That Symposium was held during the SARS-CoV-2 period, and international live conferences were just a dream.

My relationship with WARMTH has existed as long as WARMTH has existed. I was present at the founding meeting of the World Radiopharmaceutical Therapy Council in 1999, the predecessor of WARMTH, ten years before the same community founded WARMTH. I have had the privilege to organize two major WARMTH events in my home country, the 7th ICRT in Levi in the Finnish Lapland in 2012 and a three-day ISRT in Helsinki, Finland, in 2018. I have been on-site at all of WARMTH's ICRT meetings worldwide. I am thankful to WARMTH officials, previous active presidents, chief operational officer, secretaries, treasurers, and active governing board members, who have made this development possible. I am very thankful to Professor Mike M Sathekge, the Immediate Past President, for being active during his period (President's Letter). The Table is ready, and I look forward to your continued support. I am also thankful to the previous Presidents, Partha Choudhury, Irene Virgolini, Richard Baum, Suresh Srivastava, and Harvey Turner, for WARMTH's foundation, continuation, and progress.

The vision of the Founding President, Professor Ajit Padhy, we should keep alive. For example: "When was the last time you did something for the first time.” (Ajit’s Editorial in WJNM 2012). I had the great privilege of hosting the WARMTH 7th ICRT in the COLD, which was Ajit’s last ICRT. We all miss you, Ajit. Past Governing and executive Boards include doctors worldwide who have been helping me promote therapeutic nuclear medicine worldwide.

I very much appreciate the support I receive from our chief operating officer, Josh Mailman. The Governing Board will be assisted by the Editor in Chief of the World Journal of Nuclear Medicine, Qaisar Siraj.  The WJNM journal (ISSN1450-1147) has recently got an impact factor, and the abstracts of the forthcoming WARMTH meetings will be published in this Thieme journal. WARMTH supports this journal, and submissions are encouraged within the WARMTH community.

Last year, 2023, was very successful for WARMTH. We were again able to arrange live meetings, the 18^th ICRT in May in Accra, Ghana, followed by a post-congress in Kumasi, Ghana, in HopeXhange Hospital. Both events were successful. WARMTH also arranged a major ISRT Congress in November 2023 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, as a part of the XXIX ALASBIMN Congress and XXIII Argentinian Society of Nuclear Medicine Congress. In this congress with more than 1000 participants, WARMTH arranged a pre-congress with 16 lecturers. Additionally, there were two smaller ISRTs in conjunction with the Romanian and Spanish Societies of Nuclear Medicine.

Dear friends, I am excited to announce the new Governing Body and Executive Body of WARMTH for the 2024/5 period.

Congratulations to all of you. The plan is to make WARMTH active, not just radioactive. We are so proud to have this formidable Governing Body representing all continents of the world. We can collectively create new opportunities for all members of WARMTH. Congratulations to President-Elect Sze Ting Lee from Australia for your election; it is a well-deserved position. We are waiting for your valuable input to keep the standard of WARMTH high for years to come.

This year will start in Muscat, Oman, on February 8-12, with the 19^th ICRT. The first World Theragnostics Day was celebrated on March 31st, 2019 (The proclamation was published in the World Journal of Nuclear Medicine (WJNM) as a part of the Helsinki ISRT Abstracts). Last year, World Theragnostics Day was arranged live online with distinguished lecturers; this year will not be an exception. A similar event is planned for this year.

Deeper collaboration with international societies such as SNMMI and EANM will continue. In practice, joint sessions will occur at the annual conferences in Toronto and Hamburg. Asia Oceania Congress of Nuclear Medicine and Biology is being held in September 2024 in Bali, Indonesia, and WARMTH plans to have an ISRT there.

WARMTH has published two earlier retrospective multicenter trials in EJNMMI; these dealt with ¹⁷⁷Lu-PSMA treatment in metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer. We are hopeful WARMTH can get additional multicenter trials published. The future of WARMTH is looking bright.

WARMTH will continue collaboration with many international organizations, such as  (IAEA, WFNMB, ICPO, SNMMI, EANM, AOFNMB, AANM, ARSNM, ALASBIMN). New proposals for ISRTs from regional societies are always welcome.

I wish everyone welcome to Oman in February 2024. The Congress President Ammad Al Tamimi and his local team have been very active. The color of this event will be Brown and White (dinner). Let's make that meeting a success as well.

Happy New Year to the WARMTH community and its friends

Kalevi Kairemo from Helsinki, Finland