First in situ TOF-PET study using digital photon counters for proton range verification.

First in situ TOF-PET study using digital photon counters for proton range verification. Phys Med Biol. 2016 Aug 1;61(16):6203-6230 Authors: Cambraia Lopes P, Bauer J, Salomon A, Rinaldi I, Tabacchini V, Tessonnier T, Crespo P, Parodi K, Schaart DR Abstract Positron emission tomography (PET) is the imaging modality most extensively tested for treatment monitoring in particle therapy. Optimal use of PET in proton therapy requires in situ acquisition of the relatively strong (15)O signal due to its relatively short half-life (~2 min) and high oxygen content in biological tissues, enabling shorter scans that are less sensitive to biological washout. This paper presents the first performance tests of a scaled-down in situ time-of-flight (TOF) PET system based on digital photon counters (DPCs) coupled to Cerium-doped Lutetium Yttrium Silicate (LYSO:Ce) crystals, providing quantitative results representative of a dual-head tomograph that complies with spatial constraints typically encountered in clinical practice (2  ×  50°, of 360°, transaxial angular acceptance). The proton-induced activity inside polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) and polyethylene (PE) phantoms was acquired within beam pauses (in-beam) and immediately after irradiation by an actively-delivered synchrotron pencil-beam, with clinically relevant 125.67 MeV/u, 4.6  ×  10(8) protons s(-1), and 10(10) total protons. 3D activity maps reconstructed with and wit...
Source: Physics in Medicine and Biology - Category: Physics Authors: Tags: Phys Med Biol Source Type: research