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In positron emission tomography (PET) studies, convolutional neural networks (CNNs) may be applied directly to the reconstructed distribution of radioactive tracers injected into the patient's body, as a pattern recognition tool. Nonetheless, unprocessed PET coincidence data exist in tabular format. This paper develops the transformation of tabular data into n-dimensional matrices, as a preparation stage for classification based on CNNs. This method explicitly introduces a nonlinear transformation at the feature engineering stage and then uses principal component analysis to create the images. We apply the proposed methodology to the classification of simulated PET coincidence events originating from NEMA IEC and anthropomorphic XCAT phantom. Comparative studies of neural network architectures, including multilayer perceptron and convolutional networks, were conducted. The developed method increased the initial number of features from 6 to 209 and gave the best precision results (79.8) for all tested neural network architectures; it also showed the smallest decrease when changing the test data to another phantom.

Objective: The Jagiellonian PET (J-PET) technology, based on plastic scintillators, has been proposed as a cost effective tool for detecting range deviations during proton therapy. This study investigates the feasibility of using J-PET for range monitoring by means of a detailed Monte Carlo simulation study of 95 patients who underwent proton therapy at the Cyclotron Centre Bronowice (CCB) in Krakow, Poland. 
Approach: Discrepancies between prescribed and delivered treatments were artificially introduced in the simulations by means of shifts in patient positioning and in the Hounsfield unit to the relative proton stopping power calibration curve. A dual-layer, cylindrical J-PET geometry was simulated in an in-room monitoring scenario and a triple-layer, dual-head geometry in an in-beam protocol. The distribution of range shifts in reconstructed PET activity was visualised in the beam's eye view. Linear prediction models were constructed from all patients in the cohort, using the mean shift in reconstructed PET activity as a predictor of the mean proton range deviation. 
Main results: Maps of deviations in the range of reconstructed PET distributions showed agreement with those of deviations in dose range in most patients. The linear prediction model showed a good fit, with coefficient of determination r^2 = 0.84 (in-room) and 0.75 (in-beam). Residual standard error was below 1 mm: 0.33 mm (in-room) and 0.23 mm (in-beam). 
Significance: The precision of the proposed prediction models shows the sensitivity of the proposed J-PET scanners to shifts in proton range for a wide range of clinical treatment plans. Furthermore, it motivates the use of such models as a tool for predicting proton range deviations and opens up new prospects for investigations into the use of intra-treatment PET images for predicting clinical metrics that aid in the assessment of the quality of delivered treatment.&#xD., (Creative Commons Attribution license.)

Purpose: Cardiac myxoma (CM), the most common cardiac tumor in adults, accounts for 50-75% of benign cardiac tumors. The diagnosis of CM is often elusive, especially in young stroke survivors and transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) is the initial technique for the differential diagnostics of CM. Less invasive cardiac computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are not available for the majority of cardiac patients. Here, a robust imaging approach, ortho-Positronium (o-Ps) imaging, is presented to determine cardiac myxoma extracted from patients undergoing urgent cardiac surgery due to unexpected atrial masses. We aimed to assess if the o-Ps atom, produced copiously in intramolecular voids during the PET imaging, serves as a biomarker for CM diagnosing., Methods: Six perioperative CM and normal (adipose) tissue samples from patients, with primary diagnosis confirmed by the histopathology examination, were examined using positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy (PALS) and micro-CT. Additionally, cell cultures and confocal microscopy techniques were used to picture cell morphology and origin., Results: We observed significant shortening in the mean o-Ps lifetime in tumor with compare to normal tissues: an average value of 1.92(02) ns and 2.72(05) ns for CM and the adipose tissue, respectively. Microscopic differences between tumor samples, confirmed in histopathology examination and micro-CT, did not influenced the major positronium imaging results., Conclusions: Our findings, combined with o-Ps lifetime analysis, revealed the novel emerging positronium imaging marker (o-PS) for cardiovascular imaging. This method opens the new perspective to facilitate the quantitative in vivo assessment of intracardiac masses on a molecular (nanoscale) level., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Objective: This paper reports on the implementation and shows examples of the use of the ProTheRaMon framework for simulating the delivery of proton therapy treatment plans and range monitoring using positron emission tomography (PET). ProTheRaMon offers complete processing of proton therapy treatment plans, patient CT geometries, and intra-treatment PET imaging, taking into account therapy and imaging coordinate systems and activity decay during the PET imaging protocol specific to a given proton therapy facility. We present the ProTheRaMon framework and illustrate its potential use case and data processing steps for a patient treated at the Cyclotron Centre Bronowice (CCB) proton therapy center in Krakow, Poland., Approach: The ProTheRaMon framework is based on GATE Monte Carlo software, the CASToR reconstruction package and in-house developed Python and bash scripts. The framework consists of five separated simulation and data processing steps, that can be further optimized according to the user's needs and specific settings of a given proton therapy facility and PET scanner design., Main Results: ProTheRaMon is presented using example data from a patient treated at CCB and the J-PET scanner to demonstrate the application of the framework for proton therapy range monitoring. The output of each simulation and data processing stage is described and visualized., Significance: We demonstrate that the ProTheRaMon simulation platform is a high-performance tool, capable of running on a computational cluster and suitable for multi-parameter studies, with databases consisting of large number of patients, as well as different PET scanner geometries and settings for range monitoring in a clinical environment. Due to its modular structure, the ProTheRaMon framework can be adjusted for different proton therapy centers and/or different PET detector geometries. It is available to the community via github., (Creative Commons Attribution license.)

In vivo assessment of cancer and precise location of altered tissues at initial stages of molecular disorders are important diagnostic challenges. Positronium is copiously formed in the free molecular spaces in the patient’s body during positron emission tomography (PET). The positronium properties vary according to the size of inter- and intramolecular voids and the concentration of molecules in them such as, e.g., molecular oxygen, O 2 ; therefore, positronium imaging may provide information about disease progression during the initial stages of molecular alterations. Current PET systems do not allow acquisition of positronium images. This study presents a new method that enables positronium imaging by simultaneous registration of annihilation photons and deexcitation photons from pharmaceuticals labeled with radionuclides. The first positronium imaging of a phantom built from cardiac myxoma and adipose tissue is demonstrated. It is anticipated that positronium imaging will substantially enhance the specificity of PET diagnostics.

A detection system of the conventional PET tomograph is set-up to record data from [Formula: see text] annihilation into two photons with energy of 511 keV, and it gives information on the density distribution of a radiopharmaceutical in the body of the object. In this paper we explore the possibility of performing the three gamma photons imaging based on ortho-positronium annihilation, as well as the possibility of positronium mean lifetime imaging with the J-PET tomograph constructed from plastic scintillators. For this purposes simulations of the ortho-positronium formation and its annihilation into three photons were performed taking into account distributions of photons' momenta as predicted by the theory of quantum electrodynamics and the response of the J-PET tomograph. In order to test the proposed ortho-positronium lifetime image reconstruction method, we concentrate on the decay of the ortho-positronium into three photons and applications of radiopharmaceuticals labeled with isotopes emitting a prompt gamma. The proposed method of imaging is based on the determination of hit-times and hit-positions of registered photons which enables the reconstruction of the time and position of the annihilation point as well as the lifetime of the ortho-positronium on an event-by-event basis. We have simulated the production of the positronium in point-like sources and in a cylindrical phantom composed of a set of different materials in which the ortho-positronium lifetime varied from 2.0 ns to 3.0 ns, as expected for ortho-positronium created in the human body. The presented reconstruction method for total-body J-PET like detector allows to achieve a mean lifetime resolution of  ∼40 ps. Recent positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy measurements of cancerous and healthy uterine tissues show that this sensitivity may allow to study the morphological changes in cell structures.

A novel plastic scintillator is developed for the application in the digital positron emission tomography (PET). The novelty of the concept lies in application of the 2-(4-styrylphenyl)benzoxazole as a wavelength shifter. The substance has not been used as scintillator dopant before. A dopant shifts the scintillation spectrum towards longer wavelengths making it more suitable for applications in scintillators of long strips geometry and light detection with digital silicon photomultipliers. These features open perspectives for the construction of the cost-effective and MRI-compatible PET scanner with the large field of view. In this article we present the synthesis method and characterize performance of the elaborated scintillator by determining its light emission spectrum, light emission efficiency, rising and decay time of the scintillation pulses and resulting timing resolution when applied in the positron emission tomography. The optimal concentration of the novel wavelength shifter was established by maximizing the light output and it was found to be 0.05 ‰ for cuboidal scintillator with dimensions of 14 mm x 14 mm x 20 mm.

Previously, we and others have reported high levels of expression of the c-erbB-2/neu gene in non-small cell lung cancer cell lines and primary tumors. We have also found that expression of c-erbB-2/neu-encoded p185neu was correlated with lymph node metastasis in lung squamous cell carcinomas. To investigate the potential role of the c-erbB-2/neu gene in lung cancer metastasis systematically, we introduced the human c-erbB-2/neu gene into very low p185neu-expressing NCI-H460 human non-small cell lung cancer cells and then examined the experimental metastatic potentials among the parental NCI-H460 cells and stable transfectants with increased expression of p185neu. Compared with the parental NCI-H460 cells, the NCI-H460 transfectants overexpressing p185neu produced significantly more pulmonary and extrapulmonary metastatic tumors in nude mice. The changes in experimental metastatic potential in vivo were accompanied by increased invasiveness in vitro. In addition, important steps in the invasion and metastasis process, such as secretion of basement membrane-degradative enzymes and migration through reconstituted basement membrane (Matrigel), were also increased in the NCI-H460 transfectants overexpressing p185neu. Moreover, scanning electron microscopy revealed that the p185neu-overexpressing NCI-H460 transfectants had significantly more microvilli and membrane protrusions than the parental cells, correlating with the increased invasive properties of these cells. The results demonstrate that overexpression of p185neu can enhance the experimental metastatic potential of NCI-H460 human lung cancer cells by promoting invasion and the other steps in the metastatic cascade.

The effects of gamma-irradiation on the properties of microvessel endothelial cells were studied in vitro. After incubating confluent endothelial cell monolayers in low serum-containing medium for 24 h, the monolayers were irradiated with 137Cs. Survival of rat lung microvessel endothelial (RLE) and mouse brain microvessel endothelial (MBE) cells were similar after irradiation (Do = 2.17 and 1.75 Gy, Dq = 4.44 and 5.67 Gy, and n = 7.8 and 25 for RLE and MBE cells, respectively). We examined the effects of gamma-irradiation on endothelial cell morphology, adhesion of syngeneic rat lung or mouse brain metastasizing tumor cells, release of the subendothelial matrix-degrading enzyme heparanase, and secretion of soluble mitogenic factors that stimulated the growth of syngeneic metastatic tumor cells. The effects of gamma-irradiation were not apparent until several hours after irradiation, and by 24 h doses of greater than or equal to 10 Gy caused limited endothelial cell retraction and reorganization of the endothelial monolayer. By 24 h after irradiation there was also increased adhesion of metastatic tumor cells to RLE but not MBE cells. We also examined the effects of gamma-irradiation on the release from endothelial cells of enzymes that solubilize the subendothelial matrix. Radiation resulted in a significant increase in the release of matrix-degrading enzyme (heparanase) that solubilized [35S]-labeled heparan sulfate from subendothelial matrix. This was most pronounced in the 24 h sample from gamma-irradiated endothelial cells. Finally, we examined the gamma-irradiation-induced release of mitogenic factors from endothelial cells that could stimulate the growth of metastatic cells in serum-limiting medium. The medium from RLE but not MBE cells stimulated the growth of a rat mammary carcinoma cell line. The results suggest that gamma-irradiation of microvessel endothelial cells can affect the interactions of tumor cells with endothelial cells and their subendothelial matrix; these processes could facilitate metastasis formation in irradiated tissues such as the lung.

The loss of intercellular junctional communication between rat 13762NF mammary carcinoma cells and their spontaneous metastatic potentials from the mammary fat pad show a high degree of correlation. We examined a stable, benign, completely junctionally coupled cell clone (MTC.4) of this system after calcium phosphate-mediated transfection with c-H-rasEJ/pSV2neo and control pSV2neo-containing plasmids. There was a good correlation between the copy numbers of c-H-rasEJ incorporated into MTC.4 cells and their contents of p21rasEJ; however, there was not always a correspondence between spontaneous metastatic potential and copy number of c-H-rasEJ or amount of p21rasEJ. After c-H-rasEJ/pSV2neo transfection, some MTC.4 cells lost intercellular junctional communication and became spontaneously metastatic, although some nonmetastatic transfectants also had low percentages of junctionally coupled cells. One of the control pSV2neo transfectants also became metastatic and lost intercellular junctional coupling, and calcium phosphate treatment itself resulted in increased growth rates at mammary fat pad sites and a marginal increase in incidence of spontaneous metastases, both of which preceded loss of intercellular junctional coupling in some cells. Examination of 12 subclones derived from two cloned transfectants, however, revealed a poor correlation between spontaneous metastatic potential and intercellular junctional coupling. The results suggest that loss of junctional communication between cells is often but not always associated with the progression of cells from benign to metastatic states.

The adhesive, invasive, and growth properties of parental murine large-cell lymphoma cells of low metastatic potential (RAW117-P) were compared to in-vivo-selected sublines of high metastatic potential to liver (RAW117-H10) or lung (RAW117-L17). Using small (approximately 0.5 mm3) pieces of syngeneic organ tissue (lung, liver, kidney) we found that RAW117-L17 cells selectively attached to and invaded lung tissue, whereas RAW117-H10 cells preferentially attached to and invaded liver tissue. We measured adhesion to microvessel endothelial cells established from syngeneic lung and liver and found that the RAW117-L17 cells bound to lung microvessel endothelial cells at significantly higher rates than the other lines, and RAW117-H10 and -L17 cells attached to hepatic sinusoidal endothelial cells at significantly faster rates than RAW117-P cells. Such organ specificity of adhesion was not found at the level of the subendothelial matrix, and the rates of adhesion of RAW117 cells to subendothelial matrix were lower than to endothelial cells. RAW117 cells of low or high metastatic potential bound to immobilized extracellular matrix components, such as fibronectin, at high rats, but adhesion to laminin or collagen IV was minimal. Previous studies indicated that RAW117 lines could proliferate in vitro in certain organ-conditioned media under limiting serum conditions. We therefore examined the ability of a purified paracrine lung growth factor (LDGF-1) to stimulate growth of RAW117 cells in limiting serum-containing medium. The high lung-colonizing L17 line was stimulated to proliferate by LDGF-1 at faster rates than the other lines. The data support Paget's hypothesis that the organ specificity of tumor metastasis is determined by specific tumor cell and host properties.

Using B16 melanoma variant subline B16-B14b, which was selected in vivo for enhanced brain surface colonization abilities in C57BL/6 mice, we have examined ultrastructurally the cellular behavior of B16 melanoma cells during the process of cerebral invasion. Within 14 days after the injection of viable tumor cells (10(5) cells/0.2 ml) into the common carotid artery, gross nodular tumors were identifiable in the cerebral cortex. Tumor cells in the boundary area of the cerebral cortex and leptomeninges breached the limiting glial membrane with numerous small cytoplasmic protrusions and invaded into the brain parenchyma by direct extension or along blood vessels. Direct invasion into the brain parenchyma was characterized by two ultrastructural features of the tumor cells: the production of many elongated cytoplasmic protrusions at zones of invasion which separated, fragmented, and eventually engulfed nervous tissue; and the formation of tumor cell attachments to the dendrites of nerve cells via tight junction-like structures. Another mechanism of brain parenchyma infiltration by the melanoma cells was invasion and migration along blood vessel walls of the cerebral capillaries. In this case B16 melanoma cells were found attached directly to the basolateral side of the blood vessel basal lamina. The tumor cells appeared to achieve their basal lamina location by pushing aside the perivascular astrocytes.

In cancers such as malignant melanoma, tumor spread or metastasis occurs preferentially to certain organ sites. Mouse B16 melanoma cell sublines that have been selected sequentially in vivo for enhanced blood-borne colonization of lung, brain, or ovary were tested for their survival and growth stimulation in vitro by soluble factors released from suspensions of mouse lung, brain, liver, ovary or kidney tissues. In general, the growth rate of lung-colonizing B16 cells was stimulated by high concentrations of lung-tissue-derived factors significantly more than by factors from the other tissues, whereas the growth rate of ovary-colonizing B16 cells was stimulated by ovary or lung-tissue-derived factors significantly more than by factors from the other tissues. In contrast, the growth of brain-colonizing B16 cells was not stimulated by factors released from brain tissue. When it occurred, stimulation of B16 cell growth by factors released from mouse organ tissues was dose-dependent. Liver tissue factors, and at high concentrations kidney tissue factors, inhibited cell growth of the B16 sublines, an inhibition correlating with the low potential of B16 cells to colonize liver and kidney in vivo. In addition to preferential target-organ cell adhesion found previously with B16 sublines (Nicolson et al., 1985a), the present results suggest that metastasis to specific organ sites is also dependent on the survival and growth of B16 cells affected by soluble organ-derived factors.

Murine B16 melanoma sublines have been sequentially selected in vivo for low (B16-F1) or high (B16-F10) lung, high ovary (B16-O10) or high brain (B16-B15b) colonization, and in vitro for enhanced tissue invasion (B16-BL6). These B16 sublines were tested in vitro in a syngeneic organ adhesion/invasion assay to determine differences in tumor and/or host tissue properties that might account for preferential metastasis to certain sites. Tissues used were murine C57BL/6 lung, ovary and heart. In 8 independent experiments high lung-colonizing B16-F10 cells bound to and infiltrated into lung tissue better than ovary or heart tissue, while high ovary-colonizing B16-O10 cells attached to and invaded into ovary tissue at higher rates than lung or heart tissue. Only highly tissue-invasive B16-BL6 cells were able to invade heart tissue within 18 h in the experiments. The results suggest that organ metastatic colonization preferences by malignant cells may be determined, in part, by differences in the abilities of metastatic tumor cells to attach to and invade target tissue.