Prostate and Prostate Cancer Imaging

A number of projects have been initiated to discover and develop new imaging technologies for detecting and managing cancer, to assess new and existing imaging technologies through clinical research, and to facilitate the integration of state-of-the-art imaging techniques into the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of prostate cancer.

Mostafa Fatemi, Ph.D., and James Greenleaf, Ph.D., are experts in ultrasonics and have developed a method known as vibroacoustography. They are advancing the state-of-the-art with this modality by recently testing the utility of multifrequency vibro-acoustography for imaging prostate cancer. Their findings suggest that vibro-acoustography holds the potential for a large gain of information with no increase in scanning time compared to conventional vibro-acoustography systems.

Dr. Fatemi has also been studying image formation in vibro-acoustography with depth-of-field effects. Experimental vibro-acoustography images of a phantom model with lesion-like inclusions were compared with simulated images. Results show that the experimental images are in good agreement with the proposed model.

Steven Buskirk, M.D., and Todd Igel, M.D., compared daily megavoltage electronic portal imaging or kilovoltage imaging with marker seeds to ultrasound imaging or skin marks for prostate localization and treatment positioning in patients with prostate cancer. They have found that ultrasound imaging for positioning agrees more closely to megavoltage electronic portal imaging than skin marks. However, they also found that kilovoltage imaging with fiducial seeds is even more precise.