C-13 Pyruvate Hyperpolarization: Over a thousand human studies reached in 2021!!!
By Jean-Luc Vanderheyden, PhD, JLVMI Consulting LLC
2021 was a milestone year for C-13 Pyruvate Hyperpolarization studies in humans with over 1,000 studies completed since its inception. Despite the limitations caused by the COVID epidemic worldwide, 264 studies were performed between 1 JAN and 31 DEC 2021, a 20% increase over the previous year.
As can be seen in the table below, 2 in 3 studies were conducted in patients, and 85% of these were oncology patients. Among the cancers studied, prostate and brain tumors dominate along with other solid tumors. However, it is important to note the increase in cardiac related studies, such as diabetes, cardiac functions or cardiotoxicity, for which more than half of the patients received additional injections. On the average, 30% of the volunteers and patients received more than one injection of C-13. The C-13 Pyruvate Hyperpolarization procedures were shown to be quite safe, as sites only reported mild side effects associated with the injection and no moderate or severe adverse events even after multiple administrations to the same subject.
