\nAbout 50% of all cancer patients are subjected to ra diation therapy that may be further improved by broader use of proton treatment and better monitoring of the result of each therapeutic radi ation session. The in-vivo image-guidance and dosimetry of proton irra diations\, generically known as proton range verification\, are some o f the most underinvested aspects of radiation oncology. They trail beh ind other advances in radiation therapy due to the scarcity of sensiti ve instruments compounded by the lack of treatment protocols for preci sion monitoring of effects of beam radiation. This is despite that suc h measurements may dramatically enhance the treatment accuracy and low er the post-radiation toxicity\, thus improving the entire outcome of cancer therapy. \nWe will discuss the motivation of designing and buil ding a positron-emission-tomography (PET) scanner for assisting in pro ton irradiations. It is critical that proton therapy becomes more acce ssible and of better quality as an essential component of “precision personal medicine” that is currently beginning to shape modern medi cine. We also present selected results of our pre-clinical experiments with a FLASH proton beam and discuss other related ideas towards impr oving and expanding the use of PET detectors for proton therapy. \n
\nMini-biosketch:
\nKarol Lang is the Jane and Roland Blumberg Pro fessor of Physics at the University of Texas at Austin\, where he teac hes and conducts research in experimental particle physics and in nucl ear medical imaging. He received his M.Sc. in Physics from the Univers ity of Warsaw\, and his Ph.D. from the University of Rochester. \n
\n Karol Lang has participated in experiments conducted at accelerato rs at Fermilab\, SLAC\, BNL\, and CERN\, and underground laboratories in Soudan\, Modane and Gran Sasso. Currently\, he is involved in the F ermilab program to study long baseline neutrino oscillations and in ex periments designed to search for neutrinoless double beta decay. As a spinoff of these experimental programs\, he is also involved in resear ch to develop and employ high sensitivity positron emission tomography (PET) scanners for the in-beam image-guided proton therapy\, elucidat ion of the FLASH effect\, and the total body imaging. \n URL:https://www.physics.wisc.edu/events/?id=8968 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR