June 22, 2025 – SOFIE’s fourth FAPI symposium at SNMMI was standing room only, reflecting sustained interest in the potential of FAP targeting amid the nuclear medicine and imaging community. The session, titled “A Target of Opportunity – Shaping the Future of FAPI”, was one of the satellite symposia held at the annual SNMMI meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana, on June 21-24. The intent was to showcase FAP development from various perspectives, including the treating oncologist, the investigator heading a clinical trial, and the companies working to commercialize the FAP theranostic.

The session opened with a brief welcome and introductory video from Prof. Dr. Frederik Giesel who assembled intra-individual images comparing FAPI-PET to FDG-PET. Next, Dr. Elcin Zan from Cleveland Clinic moderated an engaging panel discussion on FAP Targeting in Therapy.  Participants included representatives from Lilly, Novartis, Perspective, Precirix, Telix, and 3B Pharmaceuticals. They delved into topics such as challenges to overcome with FAP therapy, combination therapies, trials on FAP inflammation and optimizing image quality.

The lively exploration of FAP segued into a talk by Dr. Matt Strickland, a medical oncologist from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), who discussed unmet needs in GI cancers. Dr. Shadi Esfahani, also from MGH, then shared her lessons learned as a clinical trial PI for SOFIE’s Phase 2 [18F]FAPI-74.

Finally, Dr. Sherly Mosessian, SOFIE’s Chief Scientific Officer, summarized the recently completed Phase 2 [18F]FAPI-74 studies and plans for Phase 3. The audience was invited to help select the names for our Phase 3 studies with the winning result broadcast in real time.

“FAP is a complex, yet exciting target with incredible potential in therapy and imaging,” said Patrick Phelps, President and CEO of SOFIE. “At SOFIE we see tremendous opportunity in bringing leaders in the community together to share ideas and drive the future of this field. There is an abundance of possibilities to explore, and the best way to be successful is to do so through a knowledge sharing and industry/academic community approach.”

SOFIE wishes to thank our esteemed speakers and panelists for their participation, and all who attended.  The video recording of the session is available to view here.