Physics of Cancer Imaging Workshop Held at the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital. Dates for the meeting are Nov 5-6, 2013

影像在癌症的诊断、分期和疗效评估中起着至关重要的作用。当然，成像是一门广泛的学科，包括各种相当不同的模式(X射线、核磁共振、正电子发射计算机断层扫描)和分析技术。来自物理和数学领域的原理可以应用于分析和解释当前的成像技术，以及开发新的成像技术。该领域的一个关键问题是，可以在多大程度上协同使用不同的方法来获得更多的信息。另一个关键问题是提高专门造影剂的有用性，以绕过信噪比和/或空间分辨率方面的现有限制。为了应对上述挑战，组织者将在波士顿地区召开为期两天的重点研讨会。为期两天的高度集中的会议将有一个完整的议程，议题包括物理、数学和癌症成像。会议将围绕与会者之间的高水平互动，重点讨论可以利用基本物理和数学原理以及先进成像技术在癌症诊断和治疗方面取得进展的问题。每一次会议的大部分时间都将致力于在一小群受邀者中进行积极的讨论，这些受邀者涵盖了先进成像和生物学家的物理学和工程学，以及癌症生物学和治疗的前沿临床医生。这将是第一次非正式研讨会，试图创建一幅完整的图景，展示通过非侵入性方法在人类患者身上可以实现的目标。预计作为会议后续行动的一部分编写的白皮书将对这一重要领域的科学研究方向产生很大影响。将这一领域不同领域的专家聚集在一起，有望为执业肿瘤学家带来新的方向，并最终获得更好的成像“产品”。在更基础的科学层面上，预计产生的想法可能对成像在生物学和生物医学中的其他应用有用。为方便将是次会议所产生的意见传播至社会其他人士，各项讲座的摘要及整体摘要将会张贴在http://www.martinos.org/martinos/poahi/上，并连结至社区癌症物理网站：http://physicsandcancer.org/。

Imaging plays a critical role in the diagnosis, staging, and in the assessment of therapeutic response in cancer. Imaging is of course a broad discipline encompassing a variety of rather different modalities (X-ray, MRI, PET) and analysis techniques. Principles from the fields of physics and mathematics can be applied to the analysis and interpretation of current imaging techniques as well to development of novel imaging techniques. A key issue for the field is the extent to which different methods can be used synergistically to gain additional information. Another key issue is improving the usefulness of specialized contrast agents to get around existing limitations in signal to noise and/or spatial resolution. To address the aforementioned challenges, the organizers will convene a two-day focused workshop to be held in the Boston area. The two-day highly focused meeting will have a full agenda of topics at the intersection of physics and mathematics and cancer imaging. The meeting will be oriented around a high level of interactions between participants, focusing on problems where fundamental physical and mathematical principles and advanced imaging can be leveraged to make progress towards cancer diagnosis and treatment. Most of each session will be devoted to active discussion within a small group of invitees, who span both the physics and engineering of advanced imaging and biologists and clinicians at the forefront of cancer biology and treatment. This will be the first informal workshop that tries to create an integrated picture of what can be accomplished via noninvasive methods in human patients. It is expected that the white paper generated as part of the meeting follow-up will have a very large impact on the direction of scientific research in this essential area. Bringing together experts from different parts of this field can be expected to lead to new directions and ultimately better imaging "products" for the practicing oncologist. At a more basic science level, it is expected that the ideas generated may be useful for other applications of imaging in biology and biomedicine. To facilitate the spread of ideas generated by this meeting to the rest of the community, synopses of various talks as well as an overall summary will be posted at http://www.martinos.org/martinos/poahi/ and linked to the community Physics of Cancer website: http://physicsandcancer.org/