Metabolic Imaging for Radiation Therapy Treatment Planning: The Role of Hybrid PET/MR Imaging

Letizia Deantonio; Francesco Castronovo; Gaetano Paone; Giorgio Treglia; Thomas Zilli

doi:10.1016/j.mric.2023.06.005

Metabolic Imaging for Radiation Therapy Treatment Planning: The Role of Hybrid PET/MR Imaging

Magn Reson Imaging Clin N Am. 2023 Nov;31(4):637-654. doi: 10.1016/j.mric.2023.06.005. Epub 2023 Aug 3.

Authors

Letizia Deantonio¹, Francesco Castronovo², Gaetano Paone³, Giorgio Treglia⁴, Thomas Zilli⁵

Affiliations

¹ Radiation Oncology Clinic, Oncology Institute of Southern Switzerland, Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale, Bellinzona 6500, Switzerland; Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, Università della Svizzera italiana, Lugano 6900, Switzerland.
² Radiation Oncology Clinic, Oncology Institute of Southern Switzerland, Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale, Bellinzona 6500, Switzerland.
³ Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, Università della Svizzera italiana, Lugano 6900, Switzerland; Clinic for Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Imaging Institute of Southern Switzerland, Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale, Bellinzona 6500, Switzerland.
⁴ Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, Università della Svizzera italiana, Lugano 6900, Switzerland; Clinic for Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Imaging Institute of Southern Switzerland, Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale, Bellinzona 6500, Switzerland; Faculty of Biology and Medicine, University of Lausanne, Lausanne 1015, Switzerland.
⁵ Radiation Oncology Clinic, Oncology Institute of Southern Switzerland, Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale, Bellinzona 6500, Switzerland; Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, Università della Svizzera italiana, Lugano 6900, Switzerland; Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva 1211, Switzerland. Electronic address: thomas.zilli@eoc.ch.

PMID: 37741647
DOI: 10.1016/j.mric.2023.06.005

Abstract

The use of hybrid PET/MR imaging for radiotherapy treatment planning has the potential to reduce tumor and organ displacements caused by different scan times and setup changes. Although with mixed results mainly due to single-center studies with small sample size, PET/MR imaging could provide better target delineation, especially by reducing coregistration discrepancies on computed tomography simulation scan and offering better soft tissue contrast. The main limitation to drive stronger conclusions is due to the relatively low availability of hybrid PET/MR imaging systems, mainly limited to large academic centers.

Keywords: Contouring; Metabolic imaging; PET/MR imaging; Radiotherapy; Treatment planning; Tumor delineation; Tumor response.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging* / methods
Multimodal Imaging
Positron-Emission Tomography*
Tomography, X-Ray Computed