2025 Presidential Letter End of Year

Presidential Message 2024/25

Dear supporters, friends, and family of WARMTH

I am very thankful for all the support that I have received from the WARMTH members, Executive and Governing Boards (EB & GB) during my Presidency. For me, the years 2024 and 2025 have been a real success story for the World Association of Radiopharmaceutical and Molecular Therapy (WARMTH).

The first highlight was the publication in January 2024 in Lancet Oncology of the third WARMTH trial, which described targeted alpha therapy using Ac-225-PSMA-617. In this retrospective WARMTHAct study with 488 patients from four continents, Sathekge et al. report excellent outcomes: more than half of advanced-stage patients responded, and limited adverse effects were observed. Multiple factors affecting response were identified. Additionally, I provided commentary for The Lancet Oncology. WARMTH has conducted three major global trials, which were published in high-ranked journals. The first two were retrospective trials using Lu-177-PSMA-617 (the same compound as Pluvicto®), both published in the European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging. In these studies, more than 400 patients were treated, and factors predicting outcomes and excellent results were identified before official registration trials, using real-world evidence. The last publication will be on [¹⁸F]FDG PET and metabolic changes in metastatic NET patients undergoing rechallenge PRRT; the final results from the 10-year WARMTH multicenter study by Santo et al. will appear in the first issue of Theranostics in 2026.

The main congresses of the WARMTH were held in 2024 in Muscat, Oman, from February 8-12, and in 2025 in Limassol, Cyprus, from November 6-9.  Both the 19th and 20th ICRT (International Conference of Radiopharmaceutical Therapy) were well attended, with participants from all continents and multiple disciplines. Both ICRTs were successful, and the congress abstracts were published in WJNM. 

WARMTH, a voluntary, non-profit organization of enthusiastic individuals, advances science and education in radiopharmaceutical therapies for the benefit of public health and humanity and works toward worldwide access to these theragnostic procedures.

The first World Theragnostics Day (WTD) was celebrated on March 31st, 2019 (the proclamation was published in the World Journal of Nuclear Medicine (WJNM) as part of the Helsinki ISRT Abstracts). Next year, World Theragnostics Day will be called Saul Hertz World Theragnostics Day. An online event is planned as usual. World Theragnostics Day (March 31st) was celebrated on April 3rd in 2024 via an online meeting featuring two well-known speakers, Drs Hossein Jadvar from Los Angeles, USA, and Andrew M Scott from Melbourne, Australia. This live online event was moderated from Helsinki, Finland, with technical support by Josh Mailman from Oakland, California, and it gathered almost 300 participants worldwide.  In 2025, the speakers were Michael S. Hofman from Melbourne, Australia, and Stefano Fanti from Bologna, Italy. The online webinar (90 min) was held on April 1st, 2025, with more than 300 participants globally. 

WARMTH was present at the SNMMI (Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging) meeting in Toronto, Canada, in June 2024 by arranging a joint session for radionuclide therapy.  In June 2025, in New Orleans, Louisiana, WARMTH arranged a joint session for radioiodine therapy. WARMTH also signed a two-year Memorandum of Understanding with SNMMI in 2024. At the Asia Oceania Congress of Nuclear Medicine and Biology (AOCNMB) in September 2024 in Bali, Indonesia, WARMTH arranged its own ISRT (International Symposium of Radiopharmaceutical Therapy) with two sessions. AOCNMB takes place every three years; thus, the Indonesian congress in September was an entirely live event in the last six years. Similarly, WARMTH had a theragnostics session in the iPET meeting in Vienna, Austria, in October 2024. In this iPET meeting arranged by IAEA, WARMTH had strong participation with an own session and panel. This event was fully live for the first time in the last seven years and there were participants from 103 countries. The meeting culminated in the signing of the WARMTH and IAEA “Practical Arrangements” ceremony. WARMTH has a strong connection with the IAEA and its member states in promoting the medical use of radionuclides globally, as WARMTH's founder, Dr. Ajit Padhy, was previously an IAEA employee. WARMTH will continue this vital task, thereby strengthening co-operation with the IAEA. More importantly, we at WARMTH used the relatively novel “Thera(g)nostics” paradigm from the outset. The vision of the Founding President, Professor Ajit Padhy, should be kept alive. For example: "When was the last time you did something for the first time?” (Ajit’s Editorial in WJNM 2012).

During 2024, there were other WARMTH-associated events. The most important ISRT was held in Lagos, Nigeria in July 2024. There was a hands-on workshop in radiosynoviorthesis. In 2025, we were in Singapore in February (Nuclear Medicine Update) and in March in Suceava, Romania (Romanian Society of Nuclear Medicine Congress)

WARMTH initiatives are based on the premise of global growth of Nuclear Medicine therapies in all countries. We have also signed an MoU with ICPO. The idea is to extend the WARMTH involvement and influence and to continue to provide expert networking on the global platform. In May 2025, WARMTH joined international Nuclear Medicine society leaders in a Global Harmonization workshop hosted by ICPO, in München, Germany. ICPO also awarded a grant to WARMTH for the first phase of the Radiopharmaceutical trial finder, which uses Natural Language Processing (a form of AI). WARMTH is making this tool available to any medical societies interested in incorporating it into their websites. In 2025, more than 20,000 queries were processed from medical society's website, including SNMMI’s

In the year 2025, many collaborative meetings were held. The main congress, the 20th ICRT, held on November 6-9, 2025, in Cyprus, was arranged in collaboration with the Cyprus Society of Nuclear Medicine. An ISRT will be held on April 10-12, 2026, in Baku, Azerbaijan, together with the Azerbaijan Society of Nuclear Medicine. WARMTH was present in the ALASBIMN (Latin American Societies) meeting in March 2025 in Quintana Roo, Mexico, where WARMTH signed a collaboration agreement with ALASBIMN. In the European (EANM) meeting in October 2025 in Barcelona, Spain, WARMTH had its own booth.

I have greatly appreciated the support I received from WARMTH officials, our chief operating officer, Josh Mailman, our secretary, Masha Maharaj, and Past Presidents and President-Elect Sze Ting Lee. I am thankful to all the WARMTH officers for these two years, we have had monthly meetings, primarily online. The Governing Board has been assisted by the Editor in Chief of the World Journal of Nuclear Medicine, Qaisar Siraj. This WJNM journal (ISSN1450-1147) has an impact factor of 0.9, and the abstracts of many WARMTH meetings have been published in this Thieme journal. WARMTH is supporting this journal, and submissions to this journal are encouraged within the WARMTH community. A very good sign was the publication of a Special Issue on Theragnostics in WJNM in 2025.

At the end of November 2025, we elected new officials for WARMTH, and now the Executive and Governing Boards are as follows:

Additionally, WARMTH extends congratulations to Gopinath Gnanasegaran (a former WARMTH governing body member), who was elected as President of the World Federation of Nuclear Medicine and Biology (WFNMB). WARMTH has been working toward a collaboration with WFNMB.

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

I wish everyone every new WARMTH official success in their new positions, especially President Sze Ting Lee, Secretary Aviral Singh, Treasurer Mariela Agolti, and new GB members.

Lastly, I welcome everybody to our main event in Cairo, Egypt (21st ICRT) from September 23-26, 2026. The Congress Chair/ President, Yehia Omar (Egypt), Sze Ting Lee (Australia), and their local teams have already been very active. Let's make this meeting a success like many other meetings/ events where WARMTH will be present.

 Happy New Year to the WARMTH community and its friends!

Kalevi Kairemo from Helsinki, Finland