On Friday (24), during the XVI Edwaldo Camargo Symposium, the ceremony celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Nuclear Medicine Service at the Hospital de Clínicas (HC) at Unicamp took place. The symposium is named after the nuclear physician, creator and founder of the Nuclear Medicine Service at Unicamp. The event was held at the Head and Neck Otorhinolaryngology Institute of Unicamp (IOU).
According to Elba Etchebehere, a nuclear physician at Unicamp HC, Edwaldo's daughter, although Unicamp's Nuclear Medicine Service was officially inaugurated on November 11, 1992, its creation dates back to much earlier, with a conversation between two friends: doctor Eleuses Paiva, now Secretary of Health for the State of São Paulo, and Edwaldo Camargo, at the time an assistant professor of Radiology and clinical director of the Division of Nuclear Medicine at John Hopkins University, in the United States.
“Eleuses invited my father to return to Brazil to promote nuclear medicine in the private sector. However, knowing that his great passion was the academic environment, teaching and research, he spared no effort to get Edwaldo to come to Unicamp”, recalls Elba.
In 1991, Edwaldo Camargo presented Unicamp with the initial project for Nuclear Medicine and, in 1992, he was hired and invited to assume the position of director of the Nuclear Medicine Service at the Hospital das Clínicas, where he stayed until 2008. Unicamp had created the Specialization Course in Nuclear Medicine. In 1991, residency in nuclear medicine was approved by the National Medical Residency Commission, which enabled the Nuclear Medicine Service to train, over the years, more than 1994 Brazilian and foreign nuclear physicians.
Pioneering and innovation
During the ceremony, Elba presented historical data that reinforce the pioneering spirit and innovation of the Nuclear Medicine Service at Unicamp's HC. In August 1993, during the XV Brazilian Meeting of Nuclear Medicine, the Nuclear Medicine Service carried out the first transmission of nuclear medicine images in Brazil, from Campinas to Belo Horizonte, and the first image of FDG-18f in Brazil in a Helix, which is a high energy scintillation camera.
“Of the approximately 300 monthly exams that we carried out until 1992, we now have 1.100 monthly exams carried out here at Unicamp's HC. And we have already published more than 400 national and international scientific articles”, emphasizes Elba.
Currently, the medical team of the Nuclear Medicine Service at Unicamp's HC is made up of six nuclear physicians. Even so, according to Elba, the professionals who work within the Service – residents, technicians, biologists, biomedical, radiopharmaceuticals, physicists, nurses, administrators and others – continue teaching, researching and providing free quality assistance to the population of Campinas and region.
“We maintain our values with a focus on growth, development and innovation, in the aforementioned spheres of teaching, research and extension, with a lot of interdisciplinarity. Therefore, today we seek to add other values to our missions, such as internationalization and social inclusion, in all its dimensions”, emphasizes Elba.
Production of radiopharmaceuticals
Within the process of internationalization and innovation, the Nuclear Medicine Service will be responsible at Unicamp for the implementation of the National Center for Teaching and Training in Radiopharmacy in Nuclear Medicine (NNM-RTC). The project, in partnership with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), will last four years and will receive a financial contribution of 485,000 euros. The IAEA is an arm of the United Nations (UN), located in Vienna, Austria.
The NNM-RTC will be installed in Nuclear Medicine at Unicamp's HC for the production of radiopharmaceuticals not yet available in Brazil for medical applications. The project will address the synthesis of around 11 new radiotracers for diagnosis and treatment in oncology, neurology, cardiopneumology and infectology. The synthesis of radiopharmaceuticals that combine diagnostic and therapeutic applications in a single drug, a model called teranostic, will be one of the objectives for the treatment of prostate cancer and neuroendocrine tumors.
“When we received the project proposal from Unicamp, we thought it would be crazy, but after a few adjustments, we decided to support and bet on it, as it is very relevant. We want to make the NNM-RTC a reference for the development of radiopharmaceuticals in Brazil and Latin America. It will bring benefit to many people. We will have many years of collaboration”, revealed Enrique Estrada Lobato, technical director of the AIEA, during the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Nuclear Medicine Service at Unicamp's HC.
Quotes
“Each person who builds a little around himself builds a lot for a group. Professor Edwaldo must be very proud of the service he set up. It was worth it for him to leave John Hopkins and come to Unicamp. The future is made now, and you are part of this history” – Maria Luiza Moretti, general coordinator of Unicamp and acting dean
“The Nuclear Medicine Service added quality to oncology treatment and patient survival time” – Ivan Toro, Pro-Dean of Undergraduate Studies at Unicamp
“Nuclear Medicine will have more and more space at Unicamp's HC. We are going to support Nuclear Medicine to be a protagonist in the region and continue to follow this beautiful growth” – José Barreto C. Carvalheira, assistance coordinator at Unicamp's HC
“A dream that is dreamed together is reality. None of this would be possible if it weren't for the people who work at the Nuclear Medicine Service, who do everything with love and take advantage of every drop of radiopharmaceutical, which is worth gold for patients” – Bárbara Juarez Amorim, coordinator of the Nuclear Medicine Service at HC at Unicamp
“We do not discuss the Nuclear Medicine report. They are good and period. FCM is proud to have a service of this power. Professor Edwaldo left a huge legacy, and I see a bright future” – Claudio Saddy Rodrigues Coy, director of the Faculty of Medical Sciences at Unicamp
“Unicamp's Nuclear Medicine Service is part of the history of Brazilian Nuclear Medicine. It fulfills its social function, because it provides quality care, returns trained doctors and does science with numerous publications” – Rafael Lopes, president of the Brazilian Society of Nuclear Medicine
“It's been 30 years of a process made by people who idealized, fought and had to exceed to give something essential to our patients, to our hospital. And it was all done with an extra dose of goodwill” – Pastor Silvio Rocha
Tributes
During the ceremony, Elba Etchebehere, Eduardo Felipe Sá de Camargo and Elba Neisa Sá de Camargo, respectively sons and wife of Edwaldo Camargo, were honored. The other two honorees were Eleuses Paiva and Paulo Eduardo Moreira Rodrigues, who was superintendent of HC at Unicamp from 1991 to 1994, from 1997 to 2000 and from 2000 to 2002, until he took office as pro-rector of University Development at Unicamp, a position he occupied until 2013.
Eleuses was the organizer of Edwaldo's arrival at Unicamp, and Paulo Eduardo played an important role in hiring the founder of the Nuclear Medicine Service and in implementing cutting-edge nuclear medicine at Unicamp's HC. Due to previously assumed commitments, both were not present at the ceremony and later received the honors.
Read more:
HC will have a National Center for Teaching and Training in Radiopharmacy in Nuclear Medicine
