| Carbon ion radiotherapy ( CIRT ) provides a new hope for refractory tumors by virtue of Bragg peak and high relative biological effects. Medical imaging plays an important role in patient screening, target delineation, positioning, beam verification, efficacy evaluation and dose monitoring through the whole process of CIRT. Among them, PET, multi-parameter MRI and other functional imaging are particularly prominent, which can reveal key biological information such as tumor metabolic activity and hypoxia status. At present, most of the relevant studies are based on retrospective analysis. In the future, it is still necessary to carry out prospective, multi-center clinical trials and unify image acquisition and post-processing protocols to further promote the development of precision radiotherapy. This article summarizes and analyzes the research status of medical imaging in CIRT from four aspects: target delineation, efficacy evaluation, dose verification and positioning guidance, in order to provide reference for clinical practice and follow-up research. |
