Multi-modality phantom development

Multi-modality imaging has an increasing role in the diagnosis and treatment of a large number of diseases, particularly if both functional and anatomical information are acquired and accurately co-registered. Although PET-CT has recently revolutionized the role of imaging for many kinds of cancer, ultrasound is the preferred imaging technology for many diseases such as prostate cancer. Transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) is an integral part of diagnosis and treatment for prostate cancer, so we are developing a dual imaging system that will acquire PET and TRUS data during the same patient imaging session and accurately co-register the images. In order to validate our methods prior to patient imaging, we will use a novel custom PET-TRUS prostate phantom. We present our initial PET- ultrasound phantom development, including PET and ultrasound images of a simple phantom, as well as discuss of our future phantom construction plans. We will use agar-gelatin tissue mimicking materials mixed with radioactive water solutions. Although we are currently focused on prostate imaging, this phantom development is applicable to all PET-ultrasound imaging applications. In addition, we discuss how to make a PET-ultrasound phantom also MRI and/or CT compatible.