US/TOF-PET endorectal probe compatible with MR, for diagnosis and staging of the prostate cancer

Prostate Cancer (PCa) is one of the most prevalent cancers world-wide. Early and accurate diagnosis of PCa is crucial for effective and successful treatment. Our project aims at developing a unique, highly performing flexible geometry multi-modality imaging system for diagnosis and staging of PCa. The imager will have the form of an endorectal probe combining high-resolution (0.1 nini) ultrasound (US) with a very high-resolution Positron Emission Tomography (PET) probe (1mm spatial resolution) with exceptional Time-of-Flight (TOF) capability (100 ps FWHM targeted) compatible with Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), in coincidence with a set of external PET panels. While standard multiparametric MRI (mpMR) has drawbacks, diagnosis will be improved significantly by the introduction of PSPMA-PET as well as the simultaneous PET/MR imaging. The system will be capable of morphological visualization instantly and continuously combined with biological and metabolic activity, offering crucial improvement with respect to standard systems (detection of similar to 2 mm lesions vs. similar to 6 mm lesions) in spatial resolution, efficiency, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), scanning time and/or lowering injected dose.