Focused Ultrasound Surgery (FUS), also commonly referred as High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU), is a revolutionary, non-invasive therapeutic technique with the potential to transform the treatment of many serious medical problems, including tumors and brain disorders. The aim of FUS is to induce biological effects in the target tissues, by either thermal effects (i.e. ablation) or mechanical mechanisms (i.e. cavitation), during the treatment of many clinical diseases while preserving healthy tissues.
However, despite the encouraging results obtained in clinical studies and the promising interest around this innovative technology (see the efforts of the FUS Foundation, i.e. www.fusfoundation.org) FUS suffers from an important drawback, i.e. the limited flexibility in therapy delivery, which narrows its applicability to non-moving and non-essential organs, mainly under magnetic resonance imaging. By better controlling in space and position the focused US beam, FUS could address unmet clinical needs and provide treatments which are superior to the best current therapies, thereby improving the quality of life and longevity for millions of patients around the world. The number of diseases being treated using focused US has doubled in the last five years: in 2016, there have been nearly 168,000 patients treated with focused US.
In this framework, robotics has demonstrated to represent the enabling technology for the treatment of different pathologies, by adding image guidance, controllability and flexibility to many therapy procedures. In this direction, the FUTURA project (Focused Ultrasound Therapy Using Robotic Approaches, grant agreement number: 611963 - www.futuraproject.eu) has developed an autonomous, multi-functional and multi-robotic assisted platform able to perform non-invasive FUS under US guidance and monitoring (Figure 1). At the end of the 3-year project, the assessment of the complete system was demonstrated using simplified phantoms and ex-vivo tissues. In order to move some steps forwards the clinical application of the FUTURA technology, it is mandatory to demonstrate the system in the operational environment and, whenever possible, in a reasonable timeframe, in order to achieve qualification and credibility through tests and demonstration. Based on this consideration, FUTURA2020 stems from the idea to consolidate the FUTURA technologies (with its promising achievements and results) with the final aim to reach a level of maturity adequate to move towards the FUTURA exploitation.
