Valuable images

Medical imaging is crucial when it comes to diagnosing cancer. Thanks to its speed and reliability, PET/CT has evolved into a valuable examination technique. Michael Messerli’s research at the Department of Nuclear Medicine aims to find out how artificial intelligence can be used to achieve the same image quality with less radiation.

I would like more information →

It all began five years ago in fall. Eric Meilener* was a perfectly normal 11-year-old. But suddenly he was suffering daily nosebleeds, losing weight, and waking up in a sweat night after night. When he also noticed a nodule around his collarbone, his family doctor immediately sent him for a scan at University Hospital Zurich (USZ). The finding was clear: Eric had lymph node cancer.

The scan was done in a PET/CT scanner, a combination of positron emission tomography (PET) and computer tomography (CT). USZ was the first place in the world to have a machine of this type. Cancer shows up very clearly in the scan: a radioactive sugar injected into the patient’s blood reveals where the body is using a lot of sugar. That’s where the cancer cells are. Quick and reliable, in recent years PET/CT has become a valuable resource in the diagnosis of tumors.

“Why not make a good thing even better?” wondered attending physician Michael Messerli, who had already done research into the early detection of lung tumors at the USZ Department of Nuclear Medicine. He now wants to find out how PET/CT can benefit from artificial intelligence. Despite the use of digital equipment and the fact that the doses of radiation have already been reduced, the scans put a great strain on the patient’s system. Messerli is looking into whether images are just as reliable if they undergo digital post-processing to simulate a large dose of radiation. He neatly sums up the goal of his research: “Minimize the radiation, maximize the image quality.” 

The USZ Foundation is able to support his research thanks to a donation from the Palatin Foundation. In a previous project Messerli was able to do his own research into lung cancer. Now he can invest in promoting junior research talent by hiring a young resident for the PET/CT project.

In the future this research will benefit people like Eric Meilener. Even though, aged 16, he’s back to health, he still has to go for regular scans, as lymphatic node cancer comes back in one third of cases. For such follow-up scans it would also be helpful if highly reliable images could be produced with less radiation.

*anonymized/symbolic image

100% financed

Palatin Foundation