Project description
Soft-tissue navigation: early stage biomedical engineers and doctors develop new solutions
Soft-tissue navigation during surgery, particularly the surgical resection of tumours, is complicated by challenges in achieving the desired accuracy in deformable organs that move in response to respiration, heartbeat, and the intervention itself. Many patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, the main type of primary liver cancer, are not eligible for resection, and the prognosis of others is affected by the difficulties inherent in soft tissue navigation. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the HiPerNav project will train early stage researchers in minimally invasive treatment, biomedical engineering, research methodologies, and entrepreneurship. The research will bridge the gap between theoretical ideas and clinical practice by testing prototypes, as well as developing real-world solutions and tools.
Objective
Primary liver cancer, which consists predominantly of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), is the fifth most common cancer worldwide and the third most common cause of cancer mortality. A successful surgical resection of HCC requires complete removal of the tumour while sparing as much healthy tissue as possible. Due to technical and clinical difficulties relatively low percentage of patients are eligible for resection. There is an urgent need to increase the patient eligibility and improve the survival prognosis after liver interventions. HiPerNav will train early stage researchers (biomedical engineers and medical doctors) to become international leading in key areas of expertise through a novel coordinated plan of individual research projects addressing specific bottlenecks in soft tissue navigation for improved treatment of liver cancer. The multi-disciplinary dialogue and work between clinicians and biomedical engineers is crucial to address these bottlenecks. By providing researchers with knowledge and training within specific topics from minimally invasive treatment, biomedical engineering, research methodologies, innovation and entrepreneurship, the link between academic research and industry will be strengthened. This allows for easy transfer of promising results from the research projects to commercially exploitable solutions. The global image guided surgery devices market is promising; it was valued at USD 2.76 billion in 2013 and is projected to expand 6.4% from 2014 to 2022 to reach USD 4.80 billion in 2022. The market for soft-tissue navigation is still in its infancy, mainly due to challenges in achieved accuracy for targeting deformable and moving organs. By providing multi-disciplinary training, the researchers in this consortium of international leading research institutions, universities and industry will initiate true translational research from academic theoretical ideas to the clinical testing of prototype, developed solutions and tools.
Fields of science
- medical and health sciencesmedical biotechnology
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicineoncologyliver cancer
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicineanatomy and morphology
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicinesurgerysurgical specialties
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicineoncologypancreatic cancer
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
MSCA-ITN-ETN - European Training NetworksCoordinator
0450 Oslo
Norway