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Start of funding 01.07.2023
Fast timing for innovative PET/PG monitoring of proton and light ion beam therapy
Prof. Dr. Katia Parodi
Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich
Fakultät für Physik - Experimentalphysik/Medizinische Physik
Prof. Dr. Kai Vetter
University of California, Berkeley
Vice Chair, Department of Nuclear engineering
Particle therapy is a still rapidly emerging tool for cancer treatment due to its superior ability (compared with standard X-ray therapy) to deliver high radiation doses to tumors while sparing healthy tissue, resulting in improved patient outcomes and quality of life. However, one of the challenges is the ability to accurately monitor the stopping position (correlated with the higher dose) of the delivered beam in the patient's body (range verification). This aspect is crucial to ensure that the radiation dose is accurately delivered to the targeted tumor while sparing healthy tissues and minimizing the risk of side effects.
In the past, different solutions of positron emission tomography (PET) and prompt gamma (PG) imaging have been investigated adopting detector technologies which are suitable for fast timing, although these fast timing capabilities have not been fully exploited yet. In this project, we will harness novel in-beam PET detector developments at LMU Munich and innovative PG technologies investigated at UC Berkeley to push forward their fast timing capabilities to promote new avenues in treatment monitoring solutions usable at both the pre-clinical and clinical level with protons and light ions. The expected outcome of the project is to exchange experience on the different detector solutions optimized at each site in the context of standalone PET and PG imaging, and thereby identify innovative approaches which leverage the fast timing opportunities enabled by the employed scintillator crystals along with modern fast electronics and data acquisition systems. This will ultimately allow us to identify the most promising novel approaches to exploit in a single system all possible PET and PG emissions induced by proton irradiation for a (quasi) real-time, reliable and efficient treatment monitoring and radiation dose estimation.