Challenge
Exposure to ionising radiation is a significant concern for vulnerable patients – particularly pregnant women and children – who may require PET/CT scans for diagnosing or staging cancer, infection, or inflammatory diseases. Traditional methods of reducing radiation often compromise image quality, limiting clinical value.
Solution
TB-PET offers dramatically increased sensitivity, enabling the use of new imaging protocols with lower radiotracer doses. In a recent case, a pregnant patient with lymphoma was successfully scanned using a protocol that reduced total radiation exposure ten-fold – without compromising diagnostic quality. Supported by a strong partnership between research institutions and the healthcare system, TB-PET is paving the way for safer, high-quality imaging during pregnancy and in other vulnerable patient populations.
Impact
Clinical–research partnerships enabled by NIF are improving patient outcomes by helping to implement new standards for ultra-low dose imaging and enhanced radiation safety – particularly for pregnancy, paediatric care, and repeated oncology scans. This successful shared clinical–research model will be expanded with the arrival of two new TB PET/CT scanners at Monash University and the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, jointly funded by NIF and the Australian Cancer Research Foundation.
