Researchers unveil first three-photon PET scanner with big implications for cancer care
Researchers recently developed the first three-photon counting PET scanner, which may improve cancer diagnoses and help providers assess malignancy without invasive biopsies.
Polish experts detailed their positronium imaging technique in Science Advances. The approach bolsters the sensitivity of PET scans and will enable total-body PET scanners to be produced five times cheaper than traditional crystal-based technologies.
The Jagiellonian PET scanner, constructed at Jagiellonian University in Poland, may also allow clinicians to assess cancers in vivo.
“We believe that the positronium image will enable better distinction between the healthy, cancer and inflammatory tissues and that it will enable us to determine the degree of a tumor’s malignancy,” Ewa Stępień, the head of medical research on the project, said in an Oct. 21 interview with Physics World.
Positronium imaging examines three events—the processes surrounding two annihilation photons and one prompt gamma photon. Traditional PET scanners are designed to register two photons from the positron-electron annihilation process, the authors noted.
The J-PET machine is made up of 192 low-cost, plastic scintillator strips and scans a patient’s entire body at once. The group put its new technique to the test using a phantom model comprised of tumor and adipose tissue taken from two patients.
“This study presents a new method that enables positronium imaging by simultaneous registration of annihilation photons and deexcitation photons from pharmaceuticals labeled with radionuclides,” the authors explained in the Oct. 13 study. “It is anticipated that positronium imaging will substantially enhance the specificity of PET diagnostics,” they added later.
Read the full study here.
Matt joined Chicago’s TriMed team in 2018 covering all areas of health imaging after two years reporting on the hospital field. He holds a bachelor’s in English from UIC, and enjoys a good cup of coffee and an interesting documentary.