Siemens Medical Solutions of Malvern, Penn., reported that it has been granted an Investigational New Drug (IND) exemption to conduct a Phase I clinical trail of [F-18] 3'-fluoro-3'-deoxythymidine (FLT) by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. FLT is an imaging biomarker for PET studies that has shown promise in monitoring the proliferation of a variety of cancer cells.

Siemens said it will support the FLT Phase I clinical trial that will be conducted at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center located in New York City, with whom Siemens has signed a research collaboration agreement focused on the co-development of imaging biomarkers that will be used in PET studies.