Nuclear Medicine imaging is being widely used to preoperatively image structures of interest for excisional biopsy. Radioguided intraoperative procedures utilizing radiotracers have established cost effective, highly specific means to locate suspect tissue and access it for pathologic analysis and excision. The ability of intraoperative probes to locate malignancies is based on the fact that the uptake of radiopharmaceutical in tumors is higher compared to healthy tissue. The benefits of radiogiuded surgery include increased tissue specifity obtained for biopsy, minimally accessed incisions and, as a result, reduction of inpatient hospital utilization and improved patient recovery. Most current commercial surgical probes are designed to be used with gamma-emitting radiotracers. The highly penetrating gamma radiation arising from the whole body overwhelms the signal from the region of interest, limiting the practical use of these probes by severely degrading signal-to-noise ratio. Existing counting probes lacking the imaging capability fail to detect small tumors and nodes in the proximity of high radioactivity injection site. We propose to address these limitations by designing a next-generation intraoperative probe utilizing both gamma and gamma radiation from such dual emitters as 131I and 18F. The new probe will rapidly navigate to the malignancy site by detecting long-range gamma rays and then will acquire an image of the region of interest with short-range beta rays. Therefore, the signal registered in the image will be arising only from the area directly in front of the detector. This novel design will fulfill the need for clear delineation of tumors during the surgical procedure and will facilitate decision-making process for the surgeon during the surgery. Furthermore, the new probe will allow inspection of the tumor bed for remaining malignant tissue to confirm the completeness of the excision.
