Medical imaging has a pivotal role in clinical management of oncology patients. Over the past years, the ability to characterize cancer lesions has improved with the advent of hybrid imaging techniques, where X-ray computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance (MR) imaging are combined with PET and or SPECT. An important aspect of this characterization is the accuracy, precision and repeatability of imaging features under different imaging conditions. Simulation of different imaging conditions is typically achieved by performing standardized experiments using phantoms. We designed and developed a multimodality imaging phantom to allow testing of features in hybrid imaging. Our research showed that the fantom permits the simulation of heterogeneous uptake and enhancement patterns in the most commonly used tomographic imaging modalities in hybrid imaging and provided insight differences in image quantification between modalities.
