Narjess is Nuclear Medicine Specialiast practicing at St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney, affiliated with the University of New South Wales as Conjoint Associate Professor. She is also the Deputy Chair of the Theranostics Subcommittee of ANZUP (The Australian and New Zealand Urogenital and Prostate Clinical Trial Group).
Narjess is dedicated to clinical research aimed at improving treatment personalization and, ultimately enhancing the quality of life and overall survival rates in patients with advanced prostate cancer. Her research focuses on radionuclides that target the prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) for imaging and therapy. She is currently actively involved in many ongoing clinical trials in this field.
Narjess completed her medical training and nuclear medicine specialization in Iran and began practicing at a tertiary university hospital in Mashhad, Iran. After moving to Australia, she discovered her academic passion for precision medicine, which led her to join the Peter MaCallum Cancer Centre for focused practice in theranostics.
Now, as a clinician-researcher at St Vincent’s Hospital, her primary goal is to make meaningful contributions to advance prostate cancer research and improve the lives of patients affected by this disease.
Assessment of FDG PET/CT-derived parameters for response assessment and prediction of clinical outcomes in patients with non-small cell lung cancer, melanoma, and lymphoma treated with immune check point inhibitors. Given the high potentials of this functional imaging in demonstrating active residual disease, FDG PET can show early response to treatment and aid in patient management including treatment intensification and early change to alternative therapeutic options.
- Ayati N, Lee ST, Zakavi SR, et al. Response Evaluation and Survival Prediction After PD-1 Immunotherapy in Patients with Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Comparison of Assessment Methods. J Nucl Med. 2021 Jul 1;62(7):926-933.
- Ayati N, Jamshidi-Araghi Z, Hoellwerth M, et al. Predictive value and accuracy of [18F]FDG PET/CT modified response criteria for checkpoint immunotherapy in patients with advanced melanoma. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2023 Jul;50(9):2715-2726.
I further contributed to the field by doing systematic review and meta-analysis of prior investigations in this regard:
- Ayati N, Sadeghi R, Kiamanesh Z, et al. The value of 18F-FDG PET/CT for predicting or monitoring immunotherapy response in patients with metastatic melanoma: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2021 Feb;48(2):428-448
- Kiamanesh Z, Ayati N, Sadeghi R, et al. The value of FDG PET/CT imaging in outcome prediction and response assessment of lymphoma patients treated with immunotherapy: a meta-analysis and systematic review. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2022 Nov;49(13):4661-4676.
Introduction of PSMA PET/CT as a valuable diagnostic tool in patients with prostate cancer, and the standard reporting of this nearly novel diagnostic modality. By now, conventional imaging (CT plus Bone scan) is considered the standard of care for prostate cancer patient management. However, next-generation imaging including PSMA PET is needed and can be a successor to conventional imaging in these patients given its potential in producing strikingly superior images compared to conventional imaging. I contributed to this era by Introducing PSMA PET, emphasizing on the superiority of PSMA PET compared to conventional imaging and standardized reporting PSMA PET scans, leading to the following publications:
-Book Chapter: Ayati N, Hofman MS; Radiopharmaceutical Therapy, Case Study #7: PSMA-617. Springer publication. 2023 Nov.
-Ayati N, Herrmann K, Fanti S, Murphy DG, Hofman MS. More Accurate Imaging Is Not Stage Migration: Time To Move from "Hubble" to "Webb" in Hormone-sensitive Prostate Cancer. Eur Urol. 2023 Jan;83(1):6-9.
-Swiha M, Ayati N, Oprea-Lager DE, Ceci F, Emmett L. How to Report PSMA PET. Semin Nucl Med. 2024 Jan;54(1):14-29.
List of Published Work in MyBibliography and ResearchGate:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/collections/mybibliography/
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Narjess-Ayati/research
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8482-4119