Straw Detector Positron Emission Mammography System

描述（由申请人提供）：乳腺癌是女性中第二常见的癌症，在美国每年的死亡率为40，000。然而，如果早期发现和治疗，超过95%的乳腺癌患者将存活。目前的乳腺癌检测方法严重依赖于X射线乳腺摄影，这会产生许多假阳性结果。这些假阳性读数会给患者带来巨大的精神痛苦，在许多情况下，会导致昂贵和痛苦的活检。80%的活检仅发现良性肿块和钙化，估计每年花费25亿美元。为了提高乳腺癌检测，我们提出了一种高度创新的设计，用于专用的正电子发射乳腺X射线摄影（PEM）相机，该相机利用长的线性铅壁吸管（LWS）探测器，提供高空间分辨率和严格准确的相互作用深度测定。因此，可以采用具有足够视场以包含整个乳房而不平移的检测器，并且可以使用非常接近的检测器对间距而不会降低分辨率。与正在开发的基于晶体的PEM相机相比，我们提出的相机提供了显着提高的灵敏度和分辨率，并大幅降低了成本。该项目的第一阶段将通过构建和测试全尺寸相机的两个重要子模块来实现概念验证。在第二阶段，将建造和测试全尺寸高灵敏度原型相机。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Breast cancer is the second most prevalent cancer in women, with a mortality rate of 40,000 per year in the US. However, if detected and treated early, more than 95% of breast cancer patients will survive. Current method for breast cancer detection relies heavily on X-ray mammography, which produces many false positive findings. These false positive readings cause substantial mental anguish in patients and in many cases, costly and painful biopsies. A full 80% of all biopies uncover only benign masses and calcifications at an estimated annual cost of 2.5 billion dollars. To improve breast cancer detection, we propose a highly innovative design for a dedicated Positron Emission Mammography (PEM) camera utilizing long, linear, lead-walled straw (LWS) detectors that provide high spatial resolution and rigorously accurate depth of interaction determination. Thus detectors with ample field of view to contain the entire breast without translation can be employed and very close detector pair spacing can be used without resolution degradation. Our proposed camera offers markedly increased sensitivity and resolution with substantially reduced cost compared to crystal-based PEM cameras under development. Phase I of the project will achieve proof of concept by constructing and testing two substantial submodules of a full scale camera. In Phase II, a full scale high sensitivity prototype camera will be constructed and tested.