The IMPROVE project has taken decisive steps towards turning Transurethral Shear Wave Elastography (TUSWE) into a viable technique for monitoring prostate cancer treatments in real time. Over two years, the project has generated new experimental tools, models, and results that together form the scientific groundwork for future clinical translation.
The work began by creating the experimental platform required to study how shear waves travel through soft tissues. A high-precision computer-controlled system was built to position tissue samples and perform controlled scans across three spatial dimensions, including rotational motion for full 3D characterisation. This setup allowed highly accurate reproduction and measurement of complex vibration patterns under laboratory conditions and became central to all experimental investigations carried out within the project.
With this setup, IMPROVE achieved one of its most significant milestones: demonstrating how heat modifies the mechanical properties of prostate tissue. Experiments on biological samples showed that as tissue is exposed to increasing thermal doses, it becomes much stiffer—by up to five times—an effect directly linked to the degree of ablation produced during therapy. This discovery provided the first clear evidence that changes in stiffness can serve as a quantitative marker of thermal treatment, a fundamental step toward real-time therapy monitoring.
Alongside these experiments, the project advanced the theoretical and computational understanding of the problem. New numerical models were developed to simulate how elastic waves propagate within prostate-like geometries, helping to predict how signals collected by transurethral probes relate to the underlying tissue structure. These models now guide the optimisation of future probe designs and data-processing algorithms.
To move from theory to imaging, IMPROVE explored innovative methods for reconstructing stiffness maps from simulated measurements. The approach successfully retrieved the location and size of regions altered by heat, showing that the principle of TUSWE can indeed resolve the effects of thermal therapy. Although further optimisation is required to reach real-time performance, this represents an important proof of concept for future developments.
Finally, the project also contributed to the creation of a new generation of miniature capacitive sensors capable of detecting the minute vibrations caused by shear waves. Laboratory testing confirmed their excellent sensitivity and reliability, paving the way for their integration into a future TUSWE probe.
Together, these achievements demonstrate consistent progress across experimental, modelling, and sensing fronts. IMPROVE has laid the essential scientific foundation for transforming TUSWE from a promising idea into a technology with the potential to make prostate cancer treatments safer, more precise, and more effective.
