The Faculty of Medicine and Medical Sciences at the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik organized on March 16, 2011 a conference on "The Future of Nuclear Medicine from PET-CT to PET-MR" given by Prof. Georges El Fakhri, Harvard Medical School Massachusetts General Hospital, at the Auditorium of Dr. Jean B. El Hawa.

In his lecture, Prof. Fakhri shed the light on the latest developments in the field of nuclear medicine imaging techniques, particularly the Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). He emphasized that synergy between these two imaging techniques has led to remarkable progress in the fields of oncology, cardiology and neurology, concerning early lesion detection, staging as well as therapy monitoring. Accuracy and specificity in diagnosing primary tumors have highly improved in cases of lung cancer, skin cancer and lymphoma. Prof. Fakhri presented as well the recent developments in simultaneous imaging PET-MR, a technique that is only available in USA (the second of its type in the world), at the Massachusetts General Hospital, in the Department of Radiology wherein Prof. Fakhri personally manages the Laboratory of Molecular Imaging. At the end of his lecture, Prof. Fakhri underlined the progress made in adopting the PET imaging in real time simultaneously with proton therapy, within the framework of a new project in the field of clinical research conducted by Prof. Fakhri and funded by the NIH, aiming to identify the contribution of PET in implementing proton therapy.