Development of J-PEM for breast cancer detection

Abstract

A detection system of the conventional PET tomograph is set-up to record data from e annihilation into two photons, each with energy of 511 keV, and to give information about the spatial density distribution of a radiopharmaceutical in the patients body. Dedicated positron emission mammography (PEM) systems provide a potentially high sensitivity, high-resolution, low attenuation, and lower cost alternative to whole body PET. We have designed, built, and performed initial evaluation of a large field-of-view Jagiellonian Positron Emission Mammography (J-PEM) system. This 3D system is based on novel idea of applying plastic scintillators to detect annihilation photons and improving spatial resolution by utilization of wavelength shifters (WLS). In addition, this device is being developed in view of classification of malignancy based on the possibility of positronium mean lifetime imaging. Here we present the first results from the simulations as motivation for our investigation.