Breast Cancer Specific PET Instrumentation

描述（由申请人提供）：本项目的总体目标是开发两台PET相机，其几何形状经过优化，可用于检测乳房 癌这些X光后乳房X光检查工具将确定是否可疑 病变具有与乳腺癌相关的代谢增加， 有可能提供一种经济有效的非侵入性活检替代方案。 FDG是一种出色的乳腺癌示踪剂，特异性> 90%， 灵敏度，如用常规PET成像测量的>1 cm病变。我们 我相信，这些更高的立体角覆盖范围和空间分辨率 专门的摄像机将使他们能够推动所需的最小肿瘤大小， 将这种高诊断准确性实现到远低于1 cm的直径。这些高 性能相机包含体积小得多的探测器， 与传统PET相比，将相机成本降低10倍， 使这项技术更容易为患者所用。 我们的两种几何结构将PET探测器模块放置在乳房附近 （类似于乳房X线摄影装置）。一种几何形状是矩形的， 其中一个环绕乳房，而另一个是一对平行的平面。这些 几何结构显著提高了灵敏度和空间分辨率 与传统的PET相机相比，灵敏度提高了一个系数， 30为矩形，20为平行平面几何形状，而 对于两种几何结构，空间分辨率增加2倍。我们预测 这将允许快速识别癌性病变的结构， 直径小至5 mm，甚至可能使用小剂量（<1 mCi）的 FDG（比目前研究中使用的低10倍）。 在过去的6年里，我们开发了核心摄像头组件，包括高 能够测量相互作用深度的高性能PET探测器模块 在晶体和必要的读出电子设备中。例如建造 基本上已经完成，目前的项目重点是调试PET 相机，开发校准例程和重建算法， 这些独特的相机几何形状，表征成像特性， 幻影，并初步评价患者的成像性能。 这些相机是专门为乳腺癌设计的，但探测器 所开发的模块也可以并入其他高分辨率PET中 相机几何形状，如高分辨率高灵敏度的人脑 成像仪或具有极高灵敏度的小动物（小鼠）扫描仪。这些 设计完成后，将提供给私营企业纳入 商业工具。

Description (provided by applicant): The overall aim of this project is to develop two PET cameras whose geometries are optimized for detecting breast cancer. These post- x-ray mammography tools would determine whether suspicious lesions have the increased metabolism associated with breast cancers, and have the potential to provide a cost effective, non-invasive alternative to biopsy. FDG is an excellent tracer for breast cancer with >90 percent specificity and sensitivity, as measured with conventional PET imaging for lesions >1 cm. We believe that the higher solid angle coverage and spatial resolution of these specialized cameras will allow them to push the minimum tumor size needed to achieve this high diagnostic accuracy to well below 1 cm diameter. These high performance cameras contain a much smaller volume of detector, which could reduce the camera cost by a factor of 10 compared to conventional PET and so make the technology more readily available to patients. Our two geometries place PET detector modules in close proximity to the breast (similar to a mammography unit). One geometry is rectangular and completely encircles the breast while the other is a pair of parallel planes. These geometries improve the sensitivity and the spatial resolution significantly compared to a conventional PET camera; the sensitivity increases by a factor of 30 for the rectangular and 20 for the parallel plane geometry, while the spatial resolution increases by a factor of 2 for both geometries. We predict that this will allow rapid identification of cancerous lesions for structures down to 5 mm in diameter, possibly even with a small (<1 mCi) injected dose of FDG (which is 10 times less than that used in current studies). In the past 6 years we developed the core camera components, including a high performance PET detector module capable of measuring the depth of interaction within the crystal and the necessary readout electronics. As the construction is virtually complete, the present project focuses on commissioning the PET cameras, developing calibration routines and reconstruction algorithms for these unique camera geometries, characterizing the imaging properties with phantoms, and preliminary evaluation of the imaging properties in patients. These cameras are designed specifically for breast cancer, but the detector module developed could also be incorporated into other high resolution PET camera geometries, such as a high-resolution high-sensitivity human brain imager or a small animal (mouse) scanner with extremely high sensitivity. These designs, when complete, will be offered to private industry to incorporate into commercial instruments.