Integrated PET/CT Guidance System for Oncologic Interventional Radiology

Interventional radiology procedures such as radiofrequency ablation are a vital component of minimally invasive cancer treatment, and use of these techniques is on the rise. At the same time, PET imaging has revolutionized the care of cancer patients with its ability to rapidly and accurately screen for the presence of neoplastic disease. Our goal is to bring the full power of PET imaging into the arena of interventional radiology, by developing an integrated image guidance system using co-registered PET and CT to enable new and improved cancer therapies. Within the current system, we have several modular components built around an open source software framework. The first component is a respiratory compensation system for matching the PET image (acquired under free breathing) to the CT image (acquired at end-inspiration). The second component is a system for performing registration between CT and fluoroscopy to enable the PET information to be brought into the interventional workspace. As an alternative to fluoroscopy guidance, we have also developed a third component for using electromagnetic tracking, which can determine the position of tools in the treatment field without ionizing radiation. Finally, we have respiratory phantoms to simulate a wide variety of breathing motion and provide a robust testing platform for our system. We are currently testing the system using these phantoms in preparation for future animal and clinical trials.