Dr. Steven Mark Larson, MD

I am a nuclear medicine physician whose clinical interests focus on the use of positron emission tomography (PET) for diagnostic and molecular imaging. I also have special expertise in the care and management of patients who receive radiotargeted therapy, particularly for thyroid cancer. In addition to being Chief of the Nuclear Medicine Service, I am the Director of the Laurent and Alberta Gerschel Positron Emission Tomography Center and Head of the Nuclear Medicine Research Laboratory. I am also a member of the Executive Council for the Molecular Pharmacology and Therapeutics Program of the Sloan-Kettering Institute. My research interests involve PET and targeted therapy in oncology. I have had a long-term interest in radiopharmaceuticals for oncologic applications in nuclear medicine and have been working in various aspects of PET since 1979. Sponsored by the US Department of Energy and in collaboration with Radiochemistry/Cyclotron CORE leader Dr. Ronald Finn, I led an effort to …develop novel radiopharmaceuticals for implementation in research in both animals and humans. During the last ten years, this effort has resulted in the introduction of more than 40 new radionuclides and compounds for implementation in animal research here at MSKCC. Over the years, I have been a member of several government advisory committees. I have served as chairman of the Radioactive Drug Advisory Committee of the Food and Drug Administration and was part of a team that developed the 21CFR361.1 Radioactive Drug Research Committee regulations. I am currently the principal investigator of several large grants from the DOE and the National Institutes of Health, including the grant that provides funding for MSKCC's Center of Multidisciplinary In Vivo Molecular Imaging in Cancer. I have received a number of awards in nuclear medicine, including the Hevesy Award from both the Society of Nuclear Medicine (SNM) and the European Society of Nuclear Medicine, the Pendergrass Award and the Radiologic Researcher of the Year Award from the Radiological Society of North America, and the Wagner Lecture Award from SNM. I have also received the Wiley Medal from the FDA, for distinguished service.