At the University of Pisa, the DoPET (Dosimetry with a Positron Emission Tomograph) project has focused on the development and characterization of an ad hoc, scalable, dual-head PET prototype for in-beam treatment planning verification of the proton therapy. In this paper we report the first results obtained with our current prototype, consisting of two opposing lutetium yttrium orthosilicate (LYSO) detectors, each one covering an area of 4.5x4.5 cm(2). We measured the beta(+)-activation induced by 62 MeV proton beams at Catana facility (LNS, Catania, Italy) in several plastic phantoms. Experiments were performed to evaluate the possibility to extract accurate phantom geometrical information from the reconstructed PET images. The PET prototype proved its capability of locating small air cavities in homogeneous PMMA phantoms with a submillimetric accuracy and of distinguishing materials with different (16)O and (12)O content by back mapping phantom geometry through the separation of the isotope contributions. This could be very useful in the clinical practice as a tool to highlight anatomical or physiological organ variations among different treatment sessions and to discriminate different tissue types, thus providing feedbacks for the accuracy of dose deposition.

Characterization of an In-Beam PET Prototype for Proton Therapy With Different Target Compositions

BELCARI, NICOLA;ROSSO, VALERIA;DEL GUERRA, ALBERTO
2010-01-01

Abstract

At the University of Pisa, the DoPET (Dosimetry with a Positron Emission Tomograph) project has focused on the development and characterization of an ad hoc, scalable, dual-head PET prototype for in-beam treatment planning verification of the proton therapy. In this paper we report the first results obtained with our current prototype, consisting of two opposing lutetium yttrium orthosilicate (LYSO) detectors, each one covering an area of 4.5x4.5 cm(2). We measured the beta(+)-activation induced by 62 MeV proton beams at Catana facility (LNS, Catania, Italy) in several plastic phantoms. Experiments were performed to evaluate the possibility to extract accurate phantom geometrical information from the reconstructed PET images. The PET prototype proved its capability of locating small air cavities in homogeneous PMMA phantoms with a submillimetric accuracy and of distinguishing materials with different (16)O and (12)O content by back mapping phantom geometry through the separation of the isotope contributions. This could be very useful in the clinical practice as a tool to highlight anatomical or physiological organ variations among different treatment sessions and to discriminate different tissue types, thus providing feedbacks for the accuracy of dose deposition.
2010
Attanasi, F; Belcari, Nicola; Moehrs, S; Rosso, Valeria; Vecchio, S; Cirrone, Gap; Cuttone, G; Lojacono, P; Romano, F; Lanconelli, N; DEL GUERRA, Alberto
File in questo prodotto:
Non ci sono file associati a questo prodotto.

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11568/194924
 Attenzione

Attenzione! I dati visualizzati non sono stati sottoposti a validazione da parte dell'ateneo

Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus 11
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? 11
social impact