Dedicated Prostate PET Scanner

In Europe, prostate cancer is the most common and the third-leading cause of cancer death in men. However, there is no systematic screening available yet. Picotech, a French company, therefore wants to build a dedicated prostate Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanner without the need for Computed Tomography (CT) named ProVision. The end goal of the ProVision is to generate a quantitative image with the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and a new generation of radiotracer dedicated to aggressive prostate tumors (18F-JK-PSMA-7). PET image reconstruction is the process of using collected data from a PET scanner to create a detailed image that shows where radioactive tracers have accumulated in the body. With the target of a low-cost scanner, Picotech decided to adopt the dual-head PET system with limited angular coverage. In comparison, a conventional PET scanner usually has a static full-ring geometry to be able to capture as many coincidences as possible. The limited angular coverage of the scanner poses difficulties in reconstructing the image, such as data truncation. To overcome this, Picotech developed a patented detector concept that measures the interaction position, including depth-of-interaction (DOI) and time-of-flight (TOF). By optimizing the reconstruction process to accommodate the non-conventional configuration of the ProVision scanner and take advantage of additional information, we aim to significantly enhance the quality, accuracy, and cost of PET imaging in prostate screening.