Medical Physics Seminar – Monday, October 11, 2010
Effect of patient set-up and patient motion on PET-based biological targets for image-guided radiotherapy
Keisha McCall (student of Dr. Robert Jeraj)
Research Assistant, Department of Medical Physics, UW-School of Medicine & Public Health, Madison, WI USA
The identification of biological heterogeneities within tumors is critical for optimal design and evaluation of biologically targeted radiotherapy (dose-painting). These biological heterogeneities can be defined by the spatial distribution of radiopharmaceuticals in PET images; however, these distributions are affected by many factors including the motion and position of tumors relative to the detectors. We have investigated uncertainties associated with PET-based dose-painting targets due to respiration motion and patient set-up. In addition, we present techniques that improve the quantitative accuracy and reproducibility of PET images, thereby minimizing these uncertainties.