Quantitative dual-mode scanner for breast cancer therapy

描述(申请人提供)：该项目的目标是开发一种双模PET/X-射线乳房X光扫描仪(PET/X)，以改善乳腺癌治疗与患者匹配的方式，通过以患者为基础的窗口研究提供治疗效果的早期评估。美国每年有超过20万名女性开始接受乳腺癌治疗。2012年，大约有40,000人死于乳腺癌。一线化疗、激素治疗和靶向治疗往往无效，需要二线或三线治疗。不幸的是，治疗的成功通常取决于等待肿瘤大小是否大幅缩小，这可能要到治疗过程的后期才会发生。及早评估治疗效果将改善结果，减少发病率，并降低成本。紧凑型PET成像模块可作为X光乳房X光扫描扫描仪的附加组件，有助于医生为乳腺癌患者选择有效的治疗方法。对治疗效果的早期评估将有助于治疗医生对患者的个体化治疗：基线(PRE 在短时间的靶向治疗后，将拍摄PET图像，治疗后的PET扫描将用于评估治疗反应，从而在诊断和手术之间的机会窗口期间用于指导术后辅助治疗的选择。为了让这种治疗模式被广泛接受和广泛使用，扫描仪需要比标准的全身PET扫描仪更高的分辨率、更紧凑、更便宜。此外，还需要高水平的定量准确性。这一第一阶段的应用将证明探测器多路复用技术的原理，该技术可大大降低适用于乳腺癌成像的紧凑型高分辨率PET扫描仪的探测器电子成本。通过对探测器读出电子设备使用最佳的多路复用技术，可以显著减少信号通道的数量，从而降低成本，同时仍能满足定量成像性能目标。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this project is to develop a dual-mode PET/x-ray mammography scanner (PET/X) to improve the way in which breast cancer therapies are matched to patients by providing early evaluation of therapy efficacy through 'window' studies on an individual patient basis. More than 200,000 women in the US start therapy for breast cancer each year. In 2012 approximately 40,000 deaths will result from breast cancer. Often the first-line chemotherapies, hormonal therapies, and targeted therapies are not effective, requiring second- or third-line therapies. Unfortunately, the success of therapy is usually determined by waiting to see if there is a substantial reduction in tumor size, which may not occur until late in the course of treatment. Early assessment of treatment effectiveness will improve outcomes, reduce morbidity, and reduce cost. A compact PET imaging module that can be used as an add-on with X-ray mammography scanners will help inform the physician's choices of effective therapies for breast cancer patients. Early evaluation of a therapy's effectiveness will help the treating physician individualize a patient's treatment: A baseline (pre treatment) PET image will be taken, then, after a short regimen of a targeted therapy, a post-therapy PET scan will be used to evaluate responses to treatment, and thus will be used to guide selection of post-surgery adjuvant therapy during the window of opportunity between diagnosis and surgery. For this treatment paradigm to become broadly accepted and widely used, the scanner needs to be higher resolution, more compact, and less expensive than standard whole-body PET scanners. In addition a high level of quantitative accuracy is needed. This Phase-I application will show proof of principle of a detector multiplexing technology that substantially reduces costs for detector electronics for a compact high-resolution PET scanner suitable for breast cancer imaging. By using optimal multiplexing technologies for the detector readout electronics, the number of signal channels can be dramatically reduced, thus reducing cost, while still meeting quantitative imaging performance goals.