PALO ALTO, Calif., Oct. 11 /PRNewswire/ — Scientists from
Stanford University and from the Ginzton Technology Center at
Varian Medical Systems have jointly received a $3.6 million
five-year research grant from the U.S. National Institutes of
Health (NIH) to develop advanced imaging technology for improving
the quality of CT images for patients with metal objects in their
bodies such as hip implants and dental fillings.  

The grant award is from the Cancer Imaging Program (CIP) of the
National Cancer Institute (NCI) within NIH. The CIP made the grant
under its program entitled: Academic-Industrial
Partnerships for Development and Validation of In Vivo Imaging
Systems and Methods for Cancer Investigations, which was set up
to encourage inter-disciplinary research by industry and academia
into cancer-related imaging challenges. Josh Star-Lack, Ph.D., a
senior scientist in Varian’s Ginzton Technology Center for research
and development, and Rebecca Fahrig, Ph.D., associate professor of
radiological sciences at the Stanford University School of
Medicine, will serve as co-principal investigators on the project.
 

“Modern radiotherapy of cancer often relies on high quality CT
images for planning advanced forms of treatment,” said
Star-Lack.  “You also need good cone-beam CT images from a
machine-mounted imager for patient positioning and for assessing
tumor response to treatment.  These CT images are typically
acquired at kilovoltage X-ray energies resulting in excellent soft
tissue definition, which means you can distinguish tumor from
muscle, fat, or other organs. Unfortunately, severe image
distortions can be created when metal is present, making it harder
to know what you’re looking at.”

According to Star-Lack, it is possible to greatly reduce the
distortions by using very high energy (megavoltage) x-rays that
better penetrate the metal.  How

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