Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

This paper examines current trends in Positron Emission Mammography (PEM) instrumentation and the performance tradeoffs inherent in them. The most common geometry is a pair of parallel planes of detector modules. They subtend a larger solid angle around the breast than conventional PET cameras, and so have both higher efficiency and lower cost. Extensions to this geometry include encircling the breast, measuring the depth of interaction (DOI), and dual-modality imaging (PEM and x-ray mammography, as well as PEM and x-ray guided biopsy). The ultimate utility of PEM may not be decided by instrument performance, but by biological and medical factors, such as the patient to patient variation in radiotracer uptake or the as yet undetermined role of PEM in breast cancer diagnosis and treatment.