The PETITION Project
Petition (PET for InTensive care units and Innovative protON therapy) is a multidisciplinary project with the aim to explore new applications for Positron Emission Tomography (PET). Together with the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV) and the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), two mobile and compact brain PET systems will be developed, based on our previous and ongoing PET scanner developments.
The PET system at PSI is going to be placed in the Gantry 2 of the proton treatment facility. The focus of this sub-project is the optimisation of biologically guided proton therapy. We will investigate on-line PET imaging as well as online tumor motion tracking, both with pre-clinical measurements and simulation studies.
The second scanner will be installed at the University Hospital in Lausanne. It will be a mobile device that can be used as a bedside PET imaging system in intensive care units. After successful commissioning, a pilot study including 30 patients, who are under sedation and need mechanical ventilation with a septic infection, will be performed.