ESHIᴹᵀ endorses 10ps challange: A step towards reconstruction-less TOF-PET

ESHIᴹᵀ is proud to announce that it endorses the lauch of a 10ps-Challenge to foster the next quantum leap in PET imaging and make reconstruction-less, high-sensitivity PET scanners a reality, thus paving the way towards reducing by an order of magnitude the radiation dose (currently 5-7 mSv for a total-body PET), the scan duration (currently > 10 min), and the scanning cost per patient (currently > 1000 € per scan).

The initiators of the challenge are still looking for sufficient support to officially launch the challenge.

Read more about the motivation and the potential outcome and benefits on their website:

the10ps-challenge.org

Two prizes are planned:

Flash Gordon Prize

A contest would be organized, e.g. at CERN, 3 years after the launch of the 10 ps Challenge. During this contest, teams that would have registered to attend would demonstrate the CTR performance of their prototype consisting in two detector modules operating in coincidence. The three best certified achievements would share the prize. A 10ps capability will increase effective PET sensitivity, as compared to the state-of-the-art, at least a factor of 16, with the following expected consequences. Read more.

Leonard McCoy Prize

This Prize would remain open until a team succeeds in separating – on an event-to-event basis – 1.6 mm rods of a micro-Derenzo phantom, or until the 10 ps Challenge expires. Once a team claims to have achieved a CTR ≤ 10 ps FWHM, a preliminary characterization would then be performed at the 10 ps Challenge certification platform… Read more.

Among other benefits, a 10 ps capability will increase effective PET sensitivity, as compared to the state-of-the-art, at least a factor of 16, with the following expected consequences:

Reduction of the radiation doses of molecular imaging procedures to negligibly low levels;
Reduction of the synthesized quantity of radiopharmaceutical needed for each examination, and thus of the relatively high cost currently associated with in-vivo molecular imaging procedures;
Further extension of the benefit of molecular imaging procedures beyond oncology and towards cardiovascular, neurological, metabolic, inflammatory, infectious or metabolic disease (such as diabetes), including in the paediatric, neonatal, andprenatal contexts;
Maximizing the spatial and temporal resolution of PET based molecular imaging;
Precise dynamic studies of molecular processes of high interest in pharmacology for screening and selecting candidate molecules for the next generation of drugs or new applications thereof;
Potentially further extension of molecular in-vivo imaging to study “systems biology” of the whole human body through whole-body imaging systems;
No need for full angular coverage of the patient, opening many new opportunities for PET system design