Tinsu Pan, Ph.D., DABR, ABSNM
Department of Imaging Physics, Division of Diagnostic Imaging
About Dr. Pan
Dr. Pan received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1991, and post-doctoral training in Nuclear Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, Worcester, Massachusetts, from 1991 to 1993. He continued on as a research faculty on quantification of SPECT until 1996 when he joined the Applied Science Laboratory of GE Healthcare, Waukesha, Wisconsin as a senior scientist on CT. He became a faculty in the Department of Imaging Physics at the University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas in 2004, is a professor in the Department of Imaging Physics and holds a joint faculty appointment in the Department of Radiation Physics at the University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Dr. Pan designed the cardiac CT and invented the 4D-CT on the GE LightSpeed CT during his tenure with GE. His design of 4D-CT is the most used 4D-CT in Radiation Oncology around the world. There are over 10,000 patients scanned with his 4D-CT at MD Anderson Cancer Center. He also invented average CT to help register the CT and PET images in the thorax,. The average CT has been applied in patient care at the University of Texas Medical School by Dr. K. Lance Gould for over 10,000 patients since 2006. He has also developed the world's first data-driven gated CT to mitigate the misregistration and motion artifacts on PET/CT. He has published 12 book chapters, 12 patents and over 139 peer-reviewed articles. Dr. Pan is certified by the ABR and ABSNM.
Present Title & Affiliation
Primary Appointment
Professor, Department of Imaging Physics, Division of Diagnostic Imaging, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Research Interests
His research aim is to improve the accuracy of quantitative imaging of the thorax on hybrid PET/CT imaging with data-driven gating (DDG). He invented and designed the first commercial 4D-CT. He contributed to the first application of 4D PET/CT, which incorporated 4D PET and 4D CT to improve the accuracy of quantitative imaging of the lung tumor. He also developed one of the first 4D Cone Beam CT’s to image the lung tumor at the treatment position for radiation therapy. He also invented average CT to improve registration of the PET/CT data. The average CT has found its use in treatment planning and image guided radiation therapy. His recent work has been on DDG PET/CT to further improve registration and reduce tumor motion in PET/CT.
Clinical Interests
PET CT
Education & Training
Degree-Granting Education
1991 | The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA, PHD, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science |
1985 | National Tsing-Hua University, Hsinchu, TWN, MS, Electrical Engineering |
1983 | National Tsing-Hua University, Hsinchu, TWN, BS, Electrical Engineering |
Board Certifications
2007 | American Board of Radiology - Diagnostic Physics |
1996 | American Board of Science in Nuclear Medicine |
Professional Memberships
Selected Publications
Peer-Reviewed Articles
- Zhao Y, Wang X, Phan J, Chen X, Lee A, Yu C, Huang K, Court LE, Pan T, Wang H, Wahid KA, Mohamed ASR, Naser M, Fuller CD, Yang J. Multi-modal segmentation with missing image data for automatic delineation of gross tumor volumes in head and neck cancers. Med Phys 51(10):7295-7307, 2024. e-Pub 2024. PMID: 38896829.
- Martin R, Pan T. Target volume and artifact evaluation of a new data-driven 4D CT. Pract Radiat Oncol 7(5):e345-e354, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28341317.
- Chism CB, Ravizzini GC, Macapinlac HA, Pan T. Quantitative comparison between regularized time-of-flight and OSEM PET reconstructions for small 18F-FDG-avid lesions. Nucl Med Commun 38(6):529-536, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28383318.
- Zhou R, Liao Z, Pan T, Milgrom SA, Pinnix CC, Shi A, Tang L, Yang J, Liu Y, Gomez D, Nguyen QN, Dabaja BS, Court L, Yang J. Cardiac atlas development and validation for automatic segmentation of cardiac substructures. Radiother Oncol 122(1):66-71, 2017. e-Pub 2016. PMID: 27939201.
- Slomka PJ, Rubeaux M, Le Meunier L, Dey D, Lazewatsky JL, Pan T, Dweck MR, Newby DE, Germano G, Berman DS. Dual-gated motion-frozen cardiac PET with Flurpiridaz F-18. J Nucl Med 56(12):1876-81, 2015. e-Pub 2015. PMID: 26405171.
- Hui C, Suh Y, Robertson D, Pan T, Das P, Crane CH, Beddar S. Internal respiratory surrogate in multislice 4D CT using a combination of Fourier transform and anatomical features. Med Phys 42(7):4338-48, 2015. PMID: 26133631.
- Ai H, Pan T. Feasibility of using respiration-averaged MR images for attenuation correction of cardiac PET/MR imaging. J Appl Clin Med Phys 16(4):311-321, 2015. e-Pub 2015. PMID: 26218995.
- Zhang Y, Yin FF, Pan T, Vergalasova I, Ren L. Preliminary clinical evaluation of a 4D-CBCT estimation technique using prior information and limited-angle projections. Radiother Oncol 115(1):22-9, 2015. e-Pub 2015. PMID: 25818396.
- Castillo SJ, Castillo R, Castillo E, Pan T, Ibbott G, Balter P, Hobbs B, Guerrero T. Evaluation of 4D CT acquisition methods designed to reduce artifacts. J Appl Clin Med Phys 16(2):23-32, 2015. e-Pub 2015. PMID: 26103169.
- Dang J, Gu X, Pan T, Wang J. A pilot evaluation of a 4D CBCT scheme based on simultaneous motion estimation and image reconstruction. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 91(2):410-8, 2015. PMID: 25636763.
- Martin R, Rubinstein A, Ahmad M, Court L, Pan T. Evaluation of intrinsic respiratory signal determination methods for 4D CBCT adapted for mice. Med Phys 42(1):154, 2015. PMID: 25563256.
- Yan H, Zhen X, Folkerts M, Li Y, Pan T, Cervino L, Jiang SB, Jia X. A hybrid reconstruction algorithm for fast and accurate 4D cone-beam CT imaging. Med Phys 41(7):071903, 2014. PMID: 24989381.
- Fave X, Yang J, Carvalho L, Martin R, Pan T Balter P, Court L. Upright cone beam CT imaging using the onboard imager. Med Phys 41(6):061906, 2014. PMID: 24877817.
- Oki Y, Chuang H, Chasen B, Jessop A, Pan T, Fanale M, Dabaja B, Fowler N, Romaguera J, Fayad L, Hagemeister F, Rodriguez MA, Neelapu S, Samaniego F, Kwak L, Younes A. The prognostic value of interim positron emission tomography scan in patients with classical Hodgkin lymphoma. Br J Haematol 165(1):112-6, 2014. e-Pub 2014. PMID: 24386943.
- Palmer J, Yang J, Pan T, Court LE. Motion of the esophagus due to cardiac motion. PLoS One 9(2):e89126, 2014. e-Pub 2014. PMID: 24586540.
- Riegel AC, Bucci MK, Mawlawi OR, Ahmad M, Luo D, Chandler A, Pan T. Defining internal target volume using positron emission tomography for radiation therapy planning of moving lung tumors. J Appl Clin Med Phys 15(1):4600, 2014. e-Pub 2014. PMID: 24423860.
- Mathieu KB, Ai H, Fox PS, Godoy MC, Munden RF, de Groot PM, Pan T. Radiation dose reduction for CT lung cancer screening using ASIR and MBIR: a phantom study. J Appl Clin Med Phys 15(2):4515, 2014. e-Pub 2014. PMID: 24710436.
- Yen TC, Visvikis D, Pan T, Fang YH. Biomedical imaging: role and opportunities of medical imaging in the "omics" era. Biomed Res Int 2014:930213, 2014. e-Pub 2014. PMID: 24995335.
- Castillo SJ, Castillo R, Balter P, Pan T, Ibbott G, Hobbs B, Yuan Y, Guerrero T. Assessment of a quantitative metric for 4D CT artifact evaluation by observer consensus. J Appl Clin Med Phys 15(3):4718, 2014. e-Pub 2014. PMID: 24892346.
Invited Articles
- Slomka PJ, Pan T, Germano G. Imaging moving heart structures with PET. J Nucl Cardiol 23(3):486-90, 2016. e-Pub 2015. PMID: 25809083.
- Slomka PJ, Pan T, Germano G. Recent Advances and Future Progress in PET Instrumentation. Semin Nucl Med 46(1):5-19, 2016. PMID: 26687853.
- Slomka PJ, Pan T, Berman DS, Germano G. Advances in SPECT and PET hardware. Prog Cardiovasc Dis 57(6):566-78, 2015. e-Pub 2015. PMID: 25721706.
- Pan T, Zaidi H.. Attenuation correction strategies for PET/CT and 4D PET/CT. PET Clinics 8:37-50, 2013.
- Zaidi H, Pan T. Recent advances in hybrid imaging for radiation therapy planning: the cutting edge. PET Clinics 6(2):207-226, 2011.
- Pan T, Mawlawi O. PET/CT in radiation oncology. Med Phys 35(11):4955-4966, 2008. PMID: 19070229.
Book Chapters
- Pan T. Motion artifacts and correction techniques in PET/CT. In: Basic Science of PET Imaging. Springer International Publishing: Switzerland, 379-396, 2016.
- Pan T. Four-Dimensional Cone-Beam Computed Tomography. In: Cone Beam Computed Tomography. CRC Press, 2014.
- Pan T. Helical 4D-CT and comparison with cine 4D-CT. In: 4D Modeling and Estimation of Respiratory Motion for Radiation Therapy. Springer, 25-41, 2013.
- Pan T. Four-Dimensional Computed Tomography. In: Technology and Applications (Devices, Circuits, and Systems). CRC Press, 2013.
Grant & Contract Support
Title: | Stratify high-risk NSCLC patients after SBRT based on quantitative 4D-PET |
Funding Source: | The University of Texas – Southwest |
Role: | Principal Investigator |
Patient Reviews
CV information above last modified October 30, 2024