Nuclear Physician

ALEXIS VRACHIMIS



As Director of the Department of Nuclear Medicine, Associate Professor Dr. Alexis Vrachimis is in charge of its Diagnostic Unit of the Department, as well as of the Radioisotope Application Chamber. He was trained and worked in university clinics in Greece and Germany, and decided to leave a promising academic career and repatriate, so as to assist in the installation of a cyclotron and PET / CT in Cyprus – the first and still the only on the island. It was his vision to see this so very crucial service provided to our fellow citizens, and thus freeing them from the additional financial burden and inconvenience of having to travel abroad for it. Since June 2017, Dr. Vrachimis is a member of the medical team led by Professor Zamboglou, and has already seen tangible results from our dedication to providing high quality services in the relief of cancer patients in Cyprus, especially those services which were not available before.

Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging is a growing medical specialty with an increasing impact internationally, and with ever so more positive results especially in cancer patients, at a diagnostic and therapeutical level. A cutting-edge cancer hospital like the GOC has consciously opted from the very beginning to go ahead with the development of a modern nuclear medicine unit.

The PET / CT examination enables us to detect disorders at the functional and molecular level, which often precede anatomical lesions. This allows us to diagnose pathological conditions at an earlier stage and/or to monitor without the delay the response to treatment. This has a significant benefit for the patient.

In addition to PET / CT, in the chamber of radioactive isotopes we offer established (eg radioactive iodine for benign and malignant thyroid diseases) and more innovative treatments (eg Xofigo for bone marrow cancer, metastatic cancer, metastatic cancer).

But beyond that, we have incorporated “Theragnostics”, (which derive from Therapy and Diagnostics) as a kind of portfolio of products which aim to transform individualized patient care in oncology through targeted molecular radiotherapy and molecular imaging diagnostic products.

Our Center is one of the few in the world today, which provides some of the most innovative treatments with 177Lu-PSMA and 225Ac-PSMA in adults with castration resistant prostate cancer, having previously with diagnostics tools located and “locked” with huge precision “tumor-target”.

For the good of each and every patient, we combine our practice with continuous education and training, aiming always for the best. It is also imperative for us that all services will be accessible to those in need, with no discrimination whatsoever.

Alexis Vrachimis
More about Dr. Vrachimis

CURRICULUM VITAE


Alexis was born in 1984 in Nicosia, Cyprus. He is married, commutes everyday to and from Limassol, is a keen football player, and fluent in Greek, German and English.


  • Education / Academic Experience
  • Professional Experience
  • Publications
  • 2001 – 2007: Medical Studies in the University of Ioannina, Greece
  • 2009 – 2010 : Assistant Researcher at the Department of Nuclear Medicine, Münster, University Hospital, Germany.
  • 2009 – 2011: Doctorate at the Medical School of WWU, Germany
  • 2010 – 2012: Postdoctoral Researcher at the Collaborative Research Center, CRC 656 in Cardiovascular Molecular Imaging, under scholarship from the German Research Institute, DFG.
  • 2017 – 2017: Clinical Researcher at CRC 656.
  • 2016: “Venia Legendi” – Associate Professor for Nuclear Medicine, Medicle School of the University of Münster, Germany, for his work on Differentiated Thyroid Cancer.
  • 2005 – 2007: Postgraduate Practical Training at the University Hospital of Ioannina, Greece.
  • 2009 – 2014: Medical specialty in Nuclear Medicine, Department of Nuclear Medicine at Münster, Germany.
  • 2010 – 2016: Lecturer at the Medical School of the University of Münster, Germany.
  • 2012 – 2014: Lecturer at the Department of Radiology Associates Λέκτορας of the University of Münster Medical School, Germany.
  • 2017 – Today: Director of the Nuclear Medicine Department, and Deputy Medical Director (Imaging) at the German Oncology Center, Limassol, Cyprus. The GOC operates as University Clinic to the European University of Cyprus.
  1. Giovanella L, Verburg FA, Ovčariček PP, Iakovou I, Mihailovic J, Vrachimis A, Zerdoud S, Hoffmann M, Luster M. “Quid autem vides festucam in oculo fratris tui et trabem in oculo tuo non vide” on the hyperthyroidism-induced mortality and antithyroid drug-induced side effects in the era of radioiodine fake news. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2020 Mar 10. doi: 10.1007/s00259-020-04748-4
  2. Verburg FA, Giovanella L, Hoffmann M, Iakovou I, Mihailovic J, Ovcaricek PP, Vrachimis A, Luster M. New! F-18-based PET/CT for sodium-iodine-symporter-targeted imaging! Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2020 Mar 16. doi: 10.1007/s00259-020-04763-5.
  3. Verburg FA, Hoffmann M, Iakovou I, Konijnenberg MW, Mihailovic J, Gabina PM, Ovčariček PP, Reiners C, Vrachimis A, Zerdoud S, Giovanella L, Luster M. Errare humanum est, sed in errare perseverare diabolicum: methodological errors in the assessment of the relationship between I-131 therapy and possible increases in the incidence of malignancies. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2020 Mar;47(3):519-522. doi: 10.1007/s00259-019-04580-5.
  4. Wenning C, Vrachimis A, Pavenstädt HJ, Reuter S, Schäfers M. Coronary artery calcium burden, carotid atherosclerotic plaque burden, and myocardial blood flow in patients with end-stage renal disease: A non-invasive imaging study combining PET/CT and 3D ultrasound. J Nucl Cardiol. 2020 Mar 5. doi: 10.1007/s12350-020-02080-w
  5. Frederik A. Verburg, Martha Hoffmann, Ioannis Iakovou, Mark W. Konijnenberg, Jasna Mihailovic, Pablo Minguez Gabina, Petra Petranović Ovčariček, Cristoph Reiners, Alexis Vrachimis, Slimane Zerdoud1, Luca Giovanella, Markus Luster. Errare humanum est, sed in errare perseverare diabolicum: methodological errors in the assessment of the relationship between I-131 therapy and possible increases in the incidence of malignancies. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-019-04580-5, 05 December 2019.
  6. Roll W, Riemann B, Schäfers M, Stegger L, Vrachimis A. 177Lu-DOTATATE Therapy in Radioiodine-refractory Differentiated Thyroid Cancer: A Single Center Experience. Clin Nucl Med. 2018;43:e346-e351.
  7. Krämer J, Lueg G, Schiffler P, Vrachimis A, Weckesser M, Wenning C, Pawlowski M, Johnen A, Teuber A, Wersching H, Meuth SG, Duning T. Diagnostic Value of Diffusion Tensor Imaging and Positron Emission Tomography in Early Stages of Frontotemporal Dementia. J Alzheimers Dis. 2018;63:239-253.
  8. Zumhagen S, Vrachimis A*, Stegger L, Kies P, Wenning C, Ernsting M, Müller J, Seebohm G, Paul M, Schäfers K, Stallmeyer B, Schäfers M, Schulze-Bahr E. Impact of presynaptic sympathetic imbalance in long-QT syndrome by positron emission tomography. Heart. 2018;104:332-339.
  9. Avramovic N, Dell’Aquila AM, Weckesser M, Milankovic D, Vrachimis A, Sindermann JR, Wenning C.Metabolic volume performs better than SUVmax in the detection of left ventricular assist device driveline infection. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2017;44:1870-1877.
  10. Gonzalez Carvalho JM, Görlich D, Schober O, Wenning C, Riemann B, Verburg FA, Vrachimis A. Evaluation of 131I scintigraphy and stimulated thyroglobulin levels in the follow up of patients with DTC: a retrospective analysis of 1420 patients. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2017;44: 744-756.
  11. Noto B, Vrachimis A, Schäfers M, Stegger L, Rahbar K. Subacute Stroke Mimicking Cerebral Metastasis in 68Ga-PSMA-HBED-CC PET/CT. Clin Nucl Med. 2016;41:e449-51.
  12. Vrachimis A, Stegger L, Wenning C, Noto B, Burg MC, Konnert JR, Allkemper T, Heindel W, Riemann B, Schäfers M, Weckesser M. [(68)Ga]DOTATATE PET/MRI and [(18)F]FDG PET/CT are complementary and superior to diffusion-weighted MR imaging for radioactive-iodine-refractory differentiated thyroid cancer. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2016;43:1765-72.
  13. Fricke IB, Viel T, Worlitzer MM, Collmann FM, Vrachimis A, Faust A, Wachsmuth L, Faber C, Dollé F, Kuhlmann MT, Schäfers K, Hermann S, Schwamborn JC, Jacobs AH. 6-hydroxydopamine-induced Parkinson’s disease-like degeneration generates acute microgliosis and astrogliosis in the nigrostriatal system but no bioluminescence imaging-detectable alteration in adult neurogenesis. Eur J Neurosci. 2016;43:1352-65.
  14. Büther F, Vrachimis A, Becker A, Stegger L. Impact of MR-safe headphones on PET attenuation in combined PET/MRI scans. EJNMMI Res. 2016;6(1):20.
  15. Vrachimis A, Weckesser M, Schäfers M, Stegger L. Imaging of differentiated thyroid carcinoma: (124)I-PET/MRI may not be superior to (124)I-PET/CT. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2016;43:1183-4.
  16. Vrachimis A, Riemann B, Mäder U, Reiners C, Verburg FA. Endogenous TSH levels at I-131 ablation do not influence ablation success, recurrence free survival or differentiated thyroid cancer related mortality. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2016;43:224–231.
  17. Wenning C, Vrachimis A*, Penning A, Stypmann J, Schäfers M. Inhomogeneous myocardial perfusion in gated SPECT is associated with the development of systolic allograft dysfunction in heart transplant recipients. EJNMMI Res. 2015;5:51.
  18. Vrachimis A, Burg MC, Wenning C, Allkemper A, Weckesser M, Schäfers M, Stegger L. [18F]FDG-PET/CT outperforms [18F]FDG-PET/MRI in differentiated thyroid cancer. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2016;43:212-20.
  19.  Zinnhardt B, Viel T, Wachsmuth L, Vrachimis A, Wagner S, Breyholz HJ, Faust A, Hermann S, Kopka K, Faber C, Dollé F, Pappata S, Planas AM, Tavitian B, Schäfers M, Sorokin LM, Kuhlmann MT, Jacobs AH. Multimodal imaging reveals temporal and spatial microglia and matrix metalloproteinase activity after experimental stroke. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 2015;35:1711-21
  20. Vrachimis A, Wenning C, Gerß J, Dralle H, Tabassi MV, Schober O, Riemann B. Not all DTC patients with N positive disease deserve the attribution “high risk”. Contribution of the MSDS trial. JSO 2015;112:9-14.
  21. Maier TM, Schober O, Gerß J, Görlich D, Wenning C, Riemann R, Vrachimis A. Differentiated thyroid cancer patients > 60 years of age paradoxically show an increased life expectancy. JNM 2015;56:190-5.
  22. Reuter S, Vrachimis A, Huss S, Wardelmann E, Weckesser M, Pavenstädt H. A Challenging Case of Rapid Progressive Kaposi Sarcoma After Renal Transplantation: Diagnostics by FDG PET/CT. Medicine (Baltimore). 2014;93:e67.
  23. Vrachimis A, Gerss J, Stoyke M, Wittekind C, Maier T, Wenning C, Rahbar K, Schober O, Riemann B. No Significant Difference in the Prognostic Value of the 5(th) and 7(th) Editions of AJCC Staging for Differentiated Thyroid Cancer. Clin Endocrinol (Oxf). 2014;80:911-7.
  24. Wenning C, Lange PS, Schülke C, Vrachimis A, Mönnig G, Schober O, Eckardt L, Schäfers M. Pulmonary vein isolation in patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation is associated with regional cardiac sympathetic denervation. EJNMMI Res. 2013;3:81.
  25. Vrachimis A, Kurt Werner S, Jürgens H, Schober O, Weckesser M, Riemann B. Cerebral metastases from thyroid carcinoma: complete remission following radioiodine treatment. Dtsch Arztebl Int. 2013;110:861-6.
  26. Wenning C, Rahbar K, Vrachimis A, Schober O, Schäfers M, Stegger L. Myocardial perfusion imaging and coronary calcium scoring with a two-slice SPECT/CT system: can the attenuation map be calculated from the calcium scoring CT scan? Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2013;40:1069-76.
  27. Vrachimis A, Riemann B, Gerss J, Maier T, Schober O. Peace of mind for patients with differentiated thyroid cancer? Nuklearmedizin. 2013;52:115-20.
  28. Rahbar K, Colombo-Benkmann M, Haane C, Wenning C, Vrachimis A, Weckesser M, Schober O. Intraoperative 3-D mapping of parathyroid adenoma using freehand SPECT. EJNMMI Res. 2012;2:51.
  29. Vrachimis A, Hermann S, Máthé D, Schober O, Schäfers M. Systematic evaluation of 99mTc-tetrofosmin versus 99mTc-sestamibi to study murine myocardial perfusion in small animal SPECT/CT. EJNMMI Res. 2012;2:21.
  30. Vrachimis A, Schober O, Riemann B. Radioiodine remnant ablation in differentiated thyroid cancer after combined endogenous and exogenous TSH stimulation. Nuklearmedizin. 2012;51:67-72.
  31. Vrachimis A, Dirksen U, Wessling J, Wenning C, Stegger L, Franzius C, Juergens H, Schober O, Weckesser M. PET surveillance of patients with Ewing sarcomas of the trunk: Must the lower legs be included? Nuklearmedizin. 2010;49:183-6.

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