Nuclear Engineering and Technology

Korean Nuclear Society (한국원자력학회)
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Experiment of proof-of-principle on prompt gamma-positron emission tomography (PG-PET) system for in-vivo dose distribution verification in proton therapy

  • Bo-Wi Cheon (Department of Radiation Convergence Engineering, Yonsei University) ;
  • Hyun Cheol Lee (Nuclear Materials Analysis Team, Korea Institute of Nuclear Nonproliferation and Control) ;
  • Sei Hwan You (Department of Radiation Oncology, Wonju Severance Christian Hospital, Yonsei University Wonju College of Medicine) ;
  • Hee Seo (Department of Quantum System Engineering, Jeonbuk National University) ;
  • Chul Hee Min (Department of Radiation Convergence Engineering, Yonsei University) ;
  • Hyun Joon Choi (Department of Radiation Oncology, Wonju Severance Christian Hospital, Yonsei University Wonju College of Medicine)
  • Received : 2022.10.04
  • Accepted : 2023.03.02
  • Published : 2023.06.25
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Abstract

In our previous study, we proposed an integrated PG-PET-based imaging method to increase the prediction accuracy for patient dose distributions. The purpose of the present study is to experimentally validate the feasibility of the PG-PET system. Based on the detector geometry optimized in the previous study, we constructed a dual-head PG-PET system consisting of a 16 × 16 GAGG scintillator and KETEK SiPM arrays, BaSO4 reflectors, and an 8 × 8 parallel-hole tungsten collimator. The performance of this system as equipped with a proof of principle, we measured the PG and positron emission (PE) distributions from a 3 × 6 × 10 cm3 PMMA phantom for a 45 MeV proton beam. The measured depth was about 17 mm and the expected depth was 16 mm in the computation simulation under the same conditions as the measurements. In the comparison result, we can find a 1 mm difference between computation simulation and measurement. In this study, our results show the feasibility of the PG-PET system for in-vivo range verification. However, further study should be followed with the consideration of the typical measurement conditions in the clinic application.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This research was supported by National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF); Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning (2020R1A2C201157613), "Regional Innovation Strategy (RIS)" through the National Research Foundation of Korea(NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education(MOE) (2022RIS-005), and Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP) grant funded by the Korea government (MOTIE) (G032579811).

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