Comparison study of RPC and crystal based PET systems for hadron therapy monitoring

Positron emission tomography (PET) is one of the most promising techniques for hadron therapy monitoring. This method uses imaging of the annihilation photons resulting from positron emitting isotopes produced during patient irradiation in hadron therapy. In order to maximize the sensitivity, in-beam PET is the preferred option, which requires a partial ring configuration. The usage of partial ring PET systems causes image artefacts and low quality images due to incomplete data. The inclusion of Time-of-flight (TO F) information into the reconstruction algorithm provides better image quality for PET systems. Therefore, a PET system with very good time and spatial resolution is necessary for hadron therapy monitoring. The Resistive-Plate-Chambers (RPCs), providing very good time and spatial resolution might be used for the quality control of hadron therapy. However, they have lower sensitivity than crystal-based systems. The objective of this study is the comparison of the performance of two TOF-PET systems, a RPC-based PET system currently under investigation by the TERA group and a commercially available crystal-based PET system, with respect to their feasibility of being applied to monitor cancer treatment with ion- and proton-beams. Various Monte-Carlo simulations were performed using GATE to evaluate the performance of both systems following NEMA protocols. Furthermore, a set of sources emulating the annihilation photons from β
⁺
-emitters produced after proton pencil beam irradiation on a PMMA target were obtained. These sources were employed to study the capability to reproduce the proton beam path and the distal edge position. Finally, we calculated the activity distribution produced by carbon ions on the basis of one field of a real treatment plan. The results obtained indicate that a RPC-based system has five times lower sensitivity, similar spatial resolution and about two times higher scatter fraction compared to the crystal-based system. The low sensitivity obtained by the RPC-based system is not sufficient to determine range deviations.