Portable Radiation Sensors for Personalized Medicine

Background

Theranostics is transforming nuclear medicine by combining diagnostics and therapeutics to treat neuroendocrine tumors (NETs). Currently in the US, any given cancer patient receives the same radiation dose. Adapting the treatment based on measured doses to organs-at-risk (OAR) currently requires costly PET scans. This project aims to develop a portable dosimetry solution that eliminates the need for daily hospital visits. It will reduce reliance on expensive imaging systems and increase access to personalized cancer treatments. These innovations will improve patient outcomes and make theranostics more efficient and widely available.

Radiotheranostics Overview
Source: doi.org/10.1007/s44211-023-00452-z

Key Objectives

Electronics

For tumor dosimetry, so-called PODD detectors are used. Each PODD probe detector consists of a GAGG scintillator, a matching SiPM device, and a pinhole tungsten collimator. The current Portable Organ Dosimetry Device (PODD) employs 16 probes, providing comprehensive coverage for accurate dosimetry measurements. The electrical signals from the PODD detectors are processed by a custom-built analog board, which employs a Time-Over-Threshold (ToT) based pulse generation circuitry.

The analog board outputs are then processed by the Altera DE-0 Nano FPGA board, which handles data acquisition. The design deployed onto the FPGA keeps a record of the occurrences of pulses with different pulse widths and stores this histogram data on the On-Chip memory. The FPGA transfers the histogram data to the MIKROE Clicker 2 board, which controls the device and enables communication with a mobile application over Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE).

Collaboration

This is a collaboration between the labs of Prof. Robert Miyaoka of UW Radiology, and Prof. Scott Hauck of UW Electrical and Computer Engineering, with significant help from Dr. William C. J. Hunter.
Researchers: Pavan Sai Guntha, Ethan Ingalls.