title: Quantitative assessment of Cerenkov luminescence for radioguided brain tumor resection surgery.
abstract: Cerenkov luminescence imaging (CLI) is a developing imaging modality that detects radiolabeled molecules via visible light emitted during the radioactive decay process. We used a Monte Carlo based computer simulation to quantitatively investigate CLI compared to direct detection of the ionizing radiation itself as an intraoperative imaging tool for assessment of brain tumor margins. Our brain tumor model consisted of a 1 mm spherical tumor remnant embedded up to 5 mm in depth below the surface of normal brain tissue. Tumor to background contrast ranging from 2:1 to 10:1 were considered. We quantified all decay signals (e±, gamma photon, Cerenkov photons) reaching the brain volume surface. CLI proved to be the most sensitive method for detecting the tumor volume in both imaging and non-imaging strategies as assessed by contrast-to-noise ratio and by receiver operating characteristic output of a channelized Hotelling observer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California, Davis, CA, United States of America.
authors.forename: Justin S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Klein
authors.forename: Gregory S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Mitchell
authors.forename: Simon R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Cherry
mesh_terms: D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D049449:Luminescence; D008954:Models, Biological; D009010:Monte Carlo Method; D017785:Photons; D025321:Surgery, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*