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EXPLORER, the world's first medical imaging scanner capable of capturing a 3D image of the entire human body at once, has produced its first scans.
An original idea from scientists at Davis University, Simon Cherry and Ramsey Badawi, EXPLORER is a combined scanner of positron emission tomography (PET) and X-ray computed tomography (CT) capable of simultaneously imaging the entire body. Because the device captures radiation much more effectively than other scanners, EXPLORER can produce an image in just one second and, over time, produce films capable of tracking specially labeled drugs when they move throughout the body.
Developers expect technology to have countless applications, from improving diagnostics to tracking disease progression to finding new drug treatments.
The first images of human scans using the new device will be presented at the next meeting of the North American Radiology Society, which begins Saturday (Nov. 24) in Chicago. The scanner was developed in partnership with Shanghai-based United Imaging Healthcare (UIH), which built the system based on its latest technology platform and will eventually manufacture devices for the broader healthcare market. health.
"Even though I had imagined what the images would look like for years, nothing prepared me for the incredible detail that we could see during this first scan," said Cherry, Distinguished Professor of the Department of Engineering. Biomedical of UC Davis. "While there is still a lot of careful analysis to do, I think we already know that EXPLORER delivers pretty much what we promised.
Badawi, head of nuclear medicine at UC Davis Health and vice president of research at the department of radiology, said he was stunned when he saw the first images acquired in collaboration with the UIH and the nuclear medicine department of Zhongshan Hospital in Shanghai.
"The level of detail was incredible, especially when the reconstruction method was optimized," he said. "We've seen features you do not see about normal PET scans. And the dynamic sequence showing the radiotracer moving around the body in three dimensions over time was, frankly, disconcerting. There is no other device capable of obtaining such data in humans, so this is really a novelty. "
Badawi and Cherry conceptualized the body scanner 13 years ago. Their idea was launched in 2011 with a $ 1.5 million grant from the National Cancer Institute, which allowed them to create a large consortium of researchers and other collaborators. And he received a boost in 2015 with a $ 15.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. The funding allowed them to team up with a commercial partner and build the first EXPLORER scanner.
Cherry said expecting EXPLORER to have a profound impact on clinical research and patient care, as it produces PET-diagnostics of superior quality to what has been possible. EXPLORER also scans up to 40 times faster than current PET scans and can produce a full body diagnostic scan in as little as 20 to 30 seconds.
EXPLORER can also scan with a radiation dose up to 40 times lower than that of a current PET scanner, opening up new avenues of research and making it possible to carry out numerous repeated studies on an individual, or considerably reducing the dose in patients. pediatric studies, in which cumulative control The radiation dose is particularly important.
"The tradeoff between image quality, acquisition time, and dose of radiation injected will vary by application, but in any case, we can scan better, faster, or with less radiation." , or a combination of these, "Cherry said.
For the first time, an imaging scanner will be able to simultaneously assess what is happening in all organs and tissues of the body. For example, it could quantitatively measure blood flow or how the body absorbs glucose throughout the body. The researchers plan to use the scanner to study cancer that has spread beyond a single tumor site, inflammation, infection, immunological or metabolic disorders. and many other diseases.
"I do not think we'll see many EXPLORER systems around the world soon," said Cherry. "But it depends on the demonstration of the benefits of the system, both clinically and for research. Our goal now is to plan studies that will show how EXPLORER will benefit our patients and contribute to our knowledge of the human body as a whole, whether it is about his health or his illness. "
UC Davis is working closely with UIH to have the first system delivered and installed at the EXPLORER imaging center in a leased space in Sacramento. The researchers hope to be able to launch research projects and image patients to help explore as early as June 2019. The UC Davis team is working closely with Hongcheng Shi, director of nuclear medicine at Shanghai Zhongshan Hospital, to continue and expand the scope of the first human studies on the scanner.
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