Prospects and Clinical Perspectives of Total-Body PET Imaging Using Plastic Scintillators

Abstract

Total-body PET opens a new diagnostic paradigm with prospects for personalized disease treatment, yet the high cost of the current crystal-based PET technology limits dissemination of total-body PET in hospitals and even in research clinics. The J-PET tomography system is based on axially arranged low-cost plastic scintillator strips. It constitutes a realistic cost-effective solution of a total-body PET for broad clinical applications. High sensitivity of total-body J-PET and triggerless data acquisition enable multiphoton imaging, opening possibilities for multitracer and positronium imaging, thus promising quantitative enhancement of specificity in cancer and inflammatory disease assessment.

Keywords: (44)Sc-PSMA; (82)Rb-chloride; J-PET; Multitracer imaging; PET imaging; Plastic scintillators; Positronium imaging; Total-body PET imaging.