A compact gamma ray imager for oncology

A variety of new techniques based on radiopharmaceuticals are showing a valid support for cancer detection and interventional procedures. Axillary lymph nodes status is the most important prognostic factor for determining breast cancer prognosis. The use of dedicated gamma cameras characterized by low costs and weight, could be easily transferred to detection for bioptical procedures. To this aim this paper presents a new detection system having two heads with 4 and 25 cm(2) Field of View (FOV) and 0.8 and 3.6 kg weight, respectively. This novel scintillation camera is based upon a compact Position Sensitive Photo Multiplier Tube (PSPMT) Hamamatsu R5900-C8 as individual or array assembled. The Hamamatsu R5900-C8 is a metal channel dynode PMT with a crossed wire anode. The overall dimensions are 28 x 28 mm(2) and 20 mm height. It was coupled to a CsI(T1) array of individual 3 x 3 x 3 mm 3 crystals. The measured intrinsic spatial resolution proved much better than the pixel size. A clinical image obtained from a breast phantom showed a 6 mm sized tumor. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved