Harmonisation and quantification of PET imaging for lung diseases

1) Brief description of the context of the research including potential impact

Approximately 10,000 people are diagnosed with a lung disease every week, with one death from the condition every 5 minutes in the UK, accounting for 20.1% of deaths in 2012. Non-invasive molecular imaging techniques such as Positron Emission Tomography and Computed Tomography (PET/CT) provide functional and structural information used to develop novel imaging biomarkers and can play an important role in diagnosing lung abnormalities and assessing disease progression and treatment response. However, accurate quantification of PET/CT lung imaging is challenging due to respiratory motion and the presence of large variations in fractions of tissue, air, blood and water. Image quality is further degraded by positron range effects as well as image reconstruction and registration approaches. To address these challenges, a lung test-object with tissue mimicking materials will be developed to validate existing tissue fraction, positron range and motion correction methods.

2) Aims and objectives
The specific objectives are to improve the accuracy and precision of PET/CT lung imaging and develop standardised protocols to enable reproducible measurements between clinical centres. This would enable multi-centre clinical trials of treatment efficacy to be conducted that use PET/CT as a pharmacodynamic endpoint.

3) Novelty of the research methodology

The production of novel 3D printing materials with tissue mimicking properties, with which to construct the lung test-object, will be investigated. Monte Carlo simulations will be undertaken to model the radiation transport in the designed geometries, against which the experimental measurements can be validated.

4) Alignment to EPSRC's strategies and research areas

The design of application-specific test-objects to optimise parameters for lung imaging corrections will allow centre-specific correction optimisation. This will aid in standardisation of quantification in multi-centre clinical trials assessing treatment efficacy. This work aligns to the EPSRC's Healthcare technologies theme, specifically the challenge of "Optimising care through effective diagnosis, patient-specific prediction and evidence-based intervention" through optimisation of Medical Imaging.

5) Any companies or collaborators involved

National Physical Laboratory (NPL)
GlaxoSmithKline Research & Development Limited (GSK)