Project description
Advancing robotics and AI for focal therapies in prostate cancer
Medical treatments that specifically target and treat localised areas of tissue, typically in the context of cancer, are known as focal therapies. These therapies include laser ablation and cryotherapy and aim to treat the disease while minimising damage to surrounding healthy tissue. Funded by the European Research Council, the PROFTH project aims to advance robotics and AI technologies for focal therapies in prostate cancer. The idea is to improve the positioning of devices in the prostate cancer area that facilitate percutaneous cancer ablation. A digital twin of the pelvic area and algorithms for device positioning will help minimise tissue removal while ensuring safety margins.
Objective
The PROFTH project aims at developing the robotics and AI technologies to enable focal therapies for prostate cancer (PCa) using the robotic positioned developed during the ERC-PoC PROST. PCa therapy is lagging about 10 years from e.g. kidney and breast therapies, that has shifted from invasive surgery to percutaneous ablation of the tumour. Several trials are acquiring the clinical evidence to support the shift from radical prostatectomy to PCa focal therapy, considering the multifocal aspect of PCa and the need to preserve the surrounding anatomical structures. Key to focal therapies is the ability to accurately and repeatably positioning the ablation device in the PCa area and to achieve the minimal tissue removal that satisfies the safety margins around the tumor and leaves the other structures untouched. The problem of accurately positioning a biopsy needle in the PCa area has been solved by the PROST project, thus we want to build on this capability to set the basis of PCa focal therapy. To achieve this goal, PROFTH will address three main objectives: 1. definition of the joint requirements between clinical needs, capabilities of the current ablation devices and positioning accuracy of PROST; 2. development of the digital twin of the pelvic area to integrate the medical information of the patient; and 3. develop a planning algorithm that will compute the position of the ablation devices in the patient PCa. We will test the developed algorithms with laboratory and ex-vivo experiments using the ablation systems available at the University Hospital of Verona.
Fields of science
Keywords
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-ERC-POC - HORIZON ERC Proof of Concept GrantsHost institution
37138 VERONA
Italy
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.