Brachytherapy seeds in the prostate. (Credit: radiopaedia.org)

A robot could become the weapon of choice for detecting and treating the most common cancer in men, improving results and reducing side effects. Scientists and mathematicians are working on a potentially game-changing way of improving the accuracy of both prostate cancer biopsies and of brachytherapy, which is used to treat some prostate cancers.

The five-year £3.3m EU-funded project brings together robot-design experts in France, a steerable flexible needle designed in the Netherlands, and a system guided by artificial intelligence and mathematical modelling by UK experts at the University of Portsmouth, working with medics and Clinical Scientists at Queen Alexandra Hospital, Portsmouth.

A prototype is expected to be ready within five years.

Professors Dylan Jones and Ashraf Labib, both at the University of Portsmouth, have decades of world-leading research in logistical modelling and in using artificial intelligence to help make better decisions.

“Prostate cancer was chosen for the development of this radical new treatment solution because it’s such a common cancer and where it is in the body lends itself to the use of robotics,” says Jones.

“There are particular challenges in delivering brachytherapy – it’s not the only treatment for prostate cancer, but it’s a good option for treatment for many patients. This development will, we hope, allow medics and scientists to come up with a treatment plan that is much more focused on the individual and the ‘map’ of their particular cancer. It will mean fewer needles need to be used, the treatment will be less invasive, and it will be much more accurate, giving medics superb precision.”

Source 

Topics:
Artificial Intelligence Diagnostics Implants & Prosthetics Medical Robotics

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    00:00:01 [Music] robotized prostate brachytherapy and biopsy is an autonomous and integrated concept which allows the optimal choice of the insertion sites controlling the needle the positive radioactive seeds adaptive tracking and self monitoring [Music] to improve the safety around the concept interaction and its environment during a

    00:00:37 set of sensors have been installed [Music] the use of a redundant manipulative robot to handle and guide the needle holder the initial positioning of the needle can be manually managed the insertion sites are chosen using a self developed software it allows the placement of a virtual grid on the 3d prostate imaging and indicates the

    00:01:11 optimal straight horribly tragic trees with identified doses for each localized targets [Music] a loader of reactive seed with a capacity of hundred seeds is used [Music] the mandrel is placed adaptively on the base of linear axis of the needle holder [Music]

    00:01:42 the needle is placed on the same alignment the hole is protected by a cover an algorithm has been developed to identify the absolute coordinates of the center of tool which represents the extremity of the needle this algorithm is linked to a measurement system composed of a laser pointer associated to a camera and a QR code to automatically calibrate the needle

    00:02:11 so calibrate the robot we use an algorithm based on image frames identification and transformation this calibration is obtained by fixing the relative positions between the ultrasound probe and the robot base frame [Music] a servomotor is placed at the top side of the needle to rotate the needle

    00:03:03 during the insertion through the skin in order to reduce the effects of the static friction during the insertion robotized prostate brachytherapy allows exploiting the mobility of the robots operator for the insertion from a single point of contact through the perineum to reach multiple targets by using one needle in the prostate [Music]

    00:03:38 robotised prostate brachytherapy contributes and reducing side-effects erectile dysfunction genitourinary and gastrointestinal oedema and could improve the deposits of radioactive seeds reliability and accuracy the concept can be extended to biopsy operations using the same principle of needle guidance and targets Tracking's

    00:04:00 [Music] you