PREFERENCE

Recently, long axial field of view (LAFOV) PET/CT systems have been introduced in the market (more than 15 in EU) and an increasing number of systems are becoming available in Europe. These systems have an ultra-large anatomical coverage, allowing dynamic imaging covering all major organs. With a sensitivity up to 20x higher than current state of the art PET/CT, molecular imaging can now be performed with ultra-low radiation doses, allowing more repeat imaging, either for multi-radiotracer studies for comprehensive disease characterization or longitudinal studies/follow up diagnostics. This is of particular interest with the advent of novel targeted drugs and cell therapies for which there is an unmet need to achieve better in vivo phenotyping and/or characterization of disease for a more precise diagnosis as well as better understanding of drug delivery and targeting to predict treatment response. Our proposed training network, PREFERENCE, will train 15 doctoral candidates (DCs) to fully exploit the benefits of large axial FOV PET/CT imaging. The network involves 13 PET centres, all with LAFOV PET/CT, a leading global manufacturer of LAFOV PET/CT systems and SMEs developing imaging software. Our individual research projects will develop new LAFOV methodologies to improve image quality and diagnosis, to enable studying human whole body disease connectomes, to allow for non-invasive full kinetic analysis, to facilitate low dose multi-tracer and/or multi-repeat LAFOV PET/CT imaging. Several DCs will use LAFOV PET/CT in clinical research to gain new insights and knowledge of pathophysiology and precision medicine in clinical research and patient care, increased understanding of pathophysiological processes and diagnosis for various clinical applications by using multi-tracer as well as dynamic imaging procedures. DCs will also experience a cutting-edge doctoral training programme including data analysis, artificial intelligence, innovation and entrepreneurship.