Radiopharmaceuticals are bioactive molecules (or compounds) tagged with a radionuclide. Growth in the use of both diagnostic nuclear medicine and radiotherapeutics has been dependent on the development of, and access to, an arsenal of radiopharmaceuticals. Radiotherapeutic applications are used to treat various malignancies, as well as hyperthyroidism and myeloproliferative diseases. Nuclear medicine radiotherapeutics incorporate similar physiologic processes to deliver targeted radiation on radiopharmaceuticals attached to an α- or β-emitting isotope. The clinical information that can thus be obtained is of particular benefit in oncology to determine the extent of cancer and the success of therapy however, many other different clinical disciplines (e.g., cardiology, endocrinology, infectious diseases, dementia research, and pain management) use diagnostic nuclear medicine studies to provide biodynamic information that cannot be obtained through other radiographic or diagnostic studies. Modern SPECT and PET studies fuse the physiologic data from SPECT or PET with the anatomic information from high-resolution CT or MRI. Diagnostic nuclear medicine is able to provide unique physiologic temporal and spatial information from the biodistribution of radiopharmaceuticals, which can be visualized by traditional planar imaging or high-resolution cross-sectional studies using either SPECT or PET cameras. Radiotherapeutic studies occur in addition to these diagnostic imaging procedures. Of these, more than 90% are SPECT scans, and the remainder are PET scans. It is estimated that about 20 million diagnostic nuclear medicine procedures are performed annually in the United States ( 1, 2). The practice of nuclear medicine incorporates both diagnostic imaging and radiotherapeutics to image and treat a wide range of clinical questions and disorders. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the SNMMI Technologist Section in 1970, the Radiopharmaceutical Sciences Council board of directors is pleased to contribute to this celebratory supplement of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology with a perspective highlighting major developments in the radiopharmaceutical sciences that have occurred in the last 50 years.

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