Mobile bioluminescence tomography-guided system for pre-clinical radiotherapy research

Due to low imaging contrast, a widely-used cone-beam computed tomography-guided small animal irradiator is less adept at localizing in vivo soft tissue targets. Bioluminescence tomography (BLT), which combines a model of light propagation through tissue with an optimization algorithm, can recover a spatially resolved tomographic volume for an internal bioluminescent source. We built a novel mobile BLT system for a small animal irradiator to localize soft tissue targets for radiation guidance. In this study, we elaborate its configuration and features that are indispensable for accurate image guidance. Phantom and in vivo validations show the BLT system can localize targets with accuracy within 1 mm. With the optimal choice of threshold and margin for target volume, BLT can provide a distinctive opportunity for investigators to perform conformal biology-guided irradiation to malignancy.